We've spoken a lot about tax advantaged investing, but how should an investor choose which VCT or EIS fund to give their money to? Ewoud Karelse is one of the long-standing analysts in the tax-advantaged market and has immense experience of looking at these products. In this episode, he discusses what to look at giving a wealth of tips. Essential listening for investors, IFAs and even providers who want to know how to improve their products!We start off with Ewoud emphasising the primacy of investor needs, especially where they have specific requirements. This leads onto discussing VCTs. We dig into the different dividend policies and how to look at their sustainability. We also talk about discount policies and how relevant they are.We follow this up by looking at factors that VCTs and EIS have in common. We talk about teams, what experience and how big they need to be. We discuss expenses, some of the different ways that they are charged and the debates around them. We also look at diversification and more.LinksEvelyn Partners - https://o2hventures.com/Subscribe to the EIS Navigator podcast on most services here: https://the-eis-navigator.captivate.fm/listenSuggested books:Malazan Book of the Fallen (10 books) by Steven EriksonFirst one - Gardens of the MoonBioEwoud KarelseProduct Specialist, Evelyn PartnersEwoud started his career in financial services with Allenbridge in 2000 and joined Towry Law in 2008 before joining Tilney in 2016, and Evelyn Partners in 2022. Ewoud is responsible for the research and selection of Venture Capital Trusts; (Seed) Enterprise Investment Schemes; Business Relief for Inheritance Tax Planning (AIM and non-AIM), and Social Investment Tax Relief products. He is also well versed in the use of Business Investment Relief for International clients.

The biotech industry attracted huge amounts of capital during the pandemic, but how is it faring in the post-pandemic world? Sunil Shah of o2h returns to give us an update on what's been happening.We start off by talking about the wider market. We discuss what's happening with capital and valuations, the contrast between public and private markets and how the US differs from the UK. We also dig into the M&A environment and, in particular, what is happening with big pharma who ultimately are the key buyers.We don't ignore the "operational" side either. Sunil gives some great insights into trends in the market, particularly around the use of AI for drug discovery and how perspective on that are changing. We look at some particular areas that seem promising, especially those where Sunil is invested.Linkso2h Ventures - https://o2hventures.com/o2h Chai Time webinars - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7YqoMJ566H7uau0E2WC3QwUK BioIndustry Association guide to investing in the UK biotech sector - https://www.bioindustry.org/policy/invest-in-biotech.htmlSubscribe to the EIS Navigator podcast on most services here: https://the-eis-navigator.captivate.fm/listenBioSunil ShahManaging Partner, o2h VenturesSunil Shah is an entrepreneur having begun his career in the Life Sciences team at PA Consulting. He co-founded Oxygen Healthcare Ltd which was fully acquired by Piramal Enterprises Ltd (BSE: PEL) in 2013. Since this time, Sunil has co-founded the o2h Group, this includes o2h Ventures, an investment firm that manages the HMRC approved ‘ Human Health’ Knowledge Intensive EIS fund and the o2h human health SEIS SEIS Fund; o2h Discovery, a medicinal chemistry research services company and o2h Co-Work Labs, a 2.7Acre Science Park in South Cambridge. Sunil has won the UKBAA Angel Investor of the year award in 2019 as well as the OBN Special Recognition Award for his significant contribution in the Life Sciences Industry. He serves on the Board of the BIA as well as Cambridge Angels. He is either Chairman, Non-Executive Director, Board Observer or an investor in over 20 Biotech companies in the UK. Sunil has a degree in Biochemistry from Keele and an MBA from Cambridge University.

While we have focused on venture capital and EIS/ VCT investors on the podcast, ultimately it is all about the companies that we invest in. Here we find out about two of them, together with the EIS fund managers who invested in them.Weedingtech supplies machines and supplies that can kill weeds without using herbicides. Its CEO, Leo de Montaignac, discusses how it works, some of the challenges he has had and how they have internationalised the business. Dan Somers of Boundary Capital talks about why it was an attractive investment, what its attraction were to an impact investor and how he overcame the concerns that many investors have about hardware businesses.Go Thrift is a retailer of second-hand clothing at industrial scale. Carl Walker, its CEO, talks about building scale when resources are scarce, how he overcame the supply and single SKU issues and what the barriers to competition are. OnePlanetCapital is an investor and Matt Jellicoe talks about why they invested, how he measured its impact and why he thinks it could be the safest investment in their portfolio.LinksWeedingtech website: https://www.weedingtech.com/Boundary Capital website: https://www.boundarycapital.com/Go Thrift website: https://gothrift.co.uk/OnePlanetCapital website: https://www.oneplanet.capital/Subscribe to the EIS Navigator podcast on most services here: https://the-eis-navigator.captivate.fm/listenBiosLeo is the CEO and co-founder of Weedingtech. As CEO he is responsible for building Weedingtech’s world class team, and steering its growth.  Leo ensures that Weedingtech remains focused on helping organisations around the world make their local areas greener, cleaner and safer than ever before. Committed to building long-lasting relationships where its customers remain the top priority, he cares passionately about Weedingtech being the best partner to anyone it works with. Leo co-founded Weedingtech because he saw an opportunity to provide the world with a safer way to weed. Prior to Weedingtech, Leo worked in a variety of roles in sales and marketing in IT. He had always wanted to start a business himself, and he left IT to start Weedingtech when the opportunity presented itself. Outside the office Leo is a keen foodie, cook and traveller.Dan Somers is the managing partner of Boundary Capital. He is a serial entrepreneur; founder and CEO of several IT businesses as well as executive and non-executive position of other growing electronics, software and green tech businesses. Dan is passionate about sustainability and impact as well as technology, and leads the business development for Boundary as well as managing some of the investments. Formerly a strategy consultant with LEK Consulting. He holds an MA from Cambridge University in Natural Sciences and a Diploma in Business Studies. A keen skier and ex-rugby player, now vicarious fan. Dreaming of post-lockdown on the ski slopes and rugby terraces!Carl Walker is CEO & Co-Founder of Go Thrift. Carl has worked in used clothing and the circular fashion sector for over 10 years and was recently nominated as a top 40 Northern Gamechanger. Go Thrift are one of the UK's leading vintage & used clothing retailers and pride themselves on being part of the solution to fast fashion pollution. They have won multiple awards for sustainability and circularity, including the Marie Claire award for best re-commerce brand.After a corporate career in public companies, Matthew Jellicoe founded and successfully exited two technology businesses in 2012 and 2018 respectively. He has been an active technology investor since 2012 and serves as a Non-Executive Director for two technology businesses. In more recent years he has specialised in sustainable investments. Matt is one of the founding directors of OnePlanet.Capital - a climate change focused EIS Investment Fund. The fund aims to combine strong investment returns with climate and environmental impact.

Valuations are a frequent topic of discussion for venture capitalists and founders alike, and are extra topical just now. We get Dave Foreman to draw on his experience to place them in context.He starts off by outlining what's happened in the past couple of years and where the market is now. He talks about what is or is not a reasonable valuation, with a particular focus on SaaS companies. Dave draws on examples to give us an idea of what he is seeing.We then dig into how valuations fit into the investment process. We talk about founder expectations and to what extent they are realistic or not. Dave digs into how dilution of founders is also a key factor when looking at valuations. He also digs into what extent as a manager you have keep investing when valuations are high and what he things of down rounds and market approaches to them.Praetura Ventures website: https://www.praeturaventures.com/Dave Foreman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-foreman-praetura/Praetura EIS Growth Fund review: https://hardmanandco.com/research/tax-enhanced-research/praetura-eis-growth-fund/BioDave ForemanManaging Director, Praetura VenturesAs the MD and founder of Praetura Ventures, one of the only VCs head-quartered in the North, David Foreman has championed tech and health founders from the region and helped them grow exceptional businesses. The Praetura Ventures investment team review over 200 funding applications a month and £3bn worth of opportunities each year, deploying into just 15-20 select businesses per year.The Praetura EIS Growth Fund has now backed success stories such as BaniFi, Culture Shift, Patchwork, PEAK, Transreport and XR Games.Praetura pride themselves on their ‘more than money’ approach, which helps their portfolio founders build the best businesses they can. This includes initiatives such as their Operational Partners programme, which matches founders with active mentors from dedicated industry heavyweights from companies such as Apple, Dr Martens, AO.com and Social Chain.

Edtech is far from uncommon in EIS investing, but is still a little away from the mainstream. Today Matthew O'Kane from Nexus Investment Ventures discusses his experiences from investing in the area.We talk about the sector a little and why the target customers may not be who we think they are. However, the bulk of our discussion is a dive into the eight year journey with Boclips, a market place for providing licensed video clips for educational purposes. We dig into some of the bumps along the way, particularly what happened when a founder left and how the company and Nexus coped with that.Matthew contrasts this, ultimately, successful investment with a recent failure to draw out several lessons that can be taken from the difference between the two companies.Nexus Ventures website: https://www.nivl.co.uk/Scale-up Fund: https://www.scaleupfund.co.uk/ Suggested book:The Islander by Chris BlackwellBioMatthew O'KaneManaging Director, Nexus Investment VenturesMatthew left Deloitte to join Nexus in 2013. He devised and launched Nexus’s first EIS Fund, the Nexus Investments Scale-Up Fund, which was shortlisted for Best Generalist EIS Fund and Best Sector Specialist at the 2019 Investment Week Tax Efficiency Awards. He acts as an angel investor and active mentor to many of the UK’s brightest healthcare and education and food tech founders.

Foresight Group recently announced that it was buying most of Downing's venture business, including two VCTS and EIS funds. To talk about, this episode's guests are Matt Smith, a long-standing Partner at Foresight, and Jack Eadie, who moved across with the Downing business. After introducing the deal itself, we discuss some of the motivations for the transaction and where Foresight see complementarity with their existing business. We also talk about how the integration will work, what effect there will be on day-to-day management and how these will affect investors. Finally, we touch on current market conditions and outlook and how that may affect things going forward.Foresight website: https://www.foresightgroup.eu/Suggested books:Good to Great by Jim CollinsMoney Men: A Hot Startup, A Billion Dollar Fraud, A Fight for the Truth by Dan McCrumHarry Potter and the Philosophers Stone by J.K. RowlingBiosMatt SmithMatt is a Partner based in Foresight Group’s London office. Prior to Foresight, Matt worked at Rothschild.Matt holds a post graduate Diploma with distinction in Physiology and an MA in Biological Sciences, both from Oxford University.Jack EadieJack is a Managing Director based in Foresight Group’s London office. Prior to Foresight, Jack worked at Downing Ventures as a Partner, he also previously worked at venture funds Next 47 and Eight Roads Ventures.Jack holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Bath.

While we have touched on regional investing several times in the podcast, we have never discussed it directly. Michael Vassallo worked as in London before returning to the North East, where he set up Maven's regional office, so he is well placed to discuss the pros and challenges of investing there.We start by looking at the big picture and some of the reasons why the UK regions get less investment funding than south-east England. We talk about how this has evolved over time, with Micheal bringing insights from what has happened in north-east England over the past few years.Michael also goes into the valuation gap that persists in the regions, talking about where it applies and some of the possible reasons behind it. Finally, we discuss what needs to change and how and who may drive change in the regions and aid the "levelling up" agenda.Maven website: https://www.mavencp.com/Maven Durham: https://www.mavencp.com/maven-durham Suggested books:The Warren Buffet Way by Robert HagstromShogun by James ClavellBioMichael VassalloNorth East Investment Director, MavenMichael joined Maven in February 2017 and works in their Newcastle and Durham offices. Michael leads the North East investment team and his responsibilities include deal origination and execution and portfolio management across North East England.Prior to joining Maven, Michael worked at FW Capital for five years and was based in their Newcastle office. At FW Capital he was involved in executing and completing mezzanine finance transactions with SMEs across the region. Prior to that, Michael worked at Brewin Dolphin for nine years and was based in their Newcastle and London offices. At Brewin Dolphin he was involved in equity research and IPOs of listed companies across multiple sectors. Michael began his career as a Chartered Accountant at Ernst & Young, in the audit department.He has an MA Hons in Mathematics from the University of Oxford and is an ACA qualified chartered accountant.Outside of work Michael enjoys golf, gardening, and days out with the family.

ESG is an area that is work in progress at the moment. Andrew Noble is a partner at Par Equity, but is also on the Steering Committee of the ESG_VC initiative, which is trying to pull together a standard framework for venture capital.We cover a wider range of areas in our discussion. Andrew talks about ESG generally and gives a framework for how he thinks about different types of ESG. We discuss how the market looks at these things and outline some of the challenges.We dig into how ESG works in venture capital in particular. We talk about the challenge of setting goals in companies that have limited resources and how to think about when companies should look at these things. Referencing the ESG_VC report, we talk about how companies set priorities and how breaking down the data gives insight into when companies are progressing in different areas.Finally we talk about how these issues are presented in the market and how to avoid greenwashing.Par Equity website: https://www.parequity.com/ESG_VC website: https://www.esgvc.co.uk/ESG_VC report: https://www.esgvc.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/ESG_VC_Report_2022.pdfAfter our recording, Andrew also suggested the following podcast episode for further perspective on ESG: https://thisweekinstartups.com/proof-of-impact-ceo-fleur-heyns-on-meaningful-metrics-for-measuring-environmental-impact-this-week-in-climate-startups-e1466/Suggested books:The Hard Thing about Hard Things by Ben HorowitzBioAndrew NoblePartner, Par EquityAndrew is a member of Par Equity's Investment Committee and sponsor partner to several Par portfolio companies. In addition, Andrew leads Par's distribution of its discretionary managed funds, takes an active role on improving Par’s operations and technology infrastructure and represents Par Equity on the Steering Committee of ESG_VC, a pan-European initiative aimed at improving the ESG credentials of VC backed companies.Andrew is a former management consultant with McKinsey & Co, specialising in sales optimisation for FTSE 100 clients, before rejoining Par Equity in May 2019. Andrew has broad experience across the early stage venture capital and private equity markets having personally invested in more than 50 innovative, high growth companies since 2008, as well as founding Transition Capital, a management buy-in vehicle, in 2017, where he was managing director, leading the deal sourcing, due diligence, and fundraising efforts. Andrew is a former athlete, having competed for TeamGB in Alpine Skiing at the 2010 Winter Olympics, and holds an MBA from INSEAD Business School.

Platforms are part of the essential plumbing for advisers and investors in most investment areas, but the tax-advantaged space has lagged mainstream markets. Dan Rodwell, CEO of GrowthInvest, comes on to discuss why that is and how they are looking change it.GrowthInvest has been on a journey itself, so we start by finding out how it has evolved and why. We chat about the tax advantaged market as whole, the additional complications that this space brings for platforms and what can be done about them. We also dig into the challenge of platforms getting to profitability, with Dan setting our clear benchmarks and how & when he thinks GrowthInvest will get there.With GrowthInvest announcing it is taking on Kuber's former clients, we explore the failure of the latter. We get Dan's perspective on what went wrong there and what lessons he takes away from it. We also discuss the recent transaction and what it means for Kuber's former clients, GrowthInvest and the market as a whole.GrowthInvest website: https://growthinvest.com/GrowthInvest email: enquiries@growthinvest.comSuggested books:Factfulness by Hans RoslingBioDan Rodwell: Chief Executive Officer, GrowthInvestDaniel is the founder and CEO of GrowthInvest, a market leading adviser platform specialising in tax efficient and alternative investments. Prior to this he managed institutional and private funds in equities and derivatives for nearly 20 years. Daniel managed the UK division of Van der Moolen Equities AG and founded the equity derivatives boutique Ten Derivatives LLP.Daniel has been an Angel Investor for over 15 years, and mentors a number of high growth businesses, focusing on digital transformation. He is passionate about increasing efficiency in the alternative investment sector, having been a driving force in the digitisation of Open Outcry traded products in the late 1990s.

Its rare for an IFA firm to be started from scratch, and even rarer for it to have a preference for tax advantaged or efficient business like EIS, VCTs, BR and SEIS products. Matthew Bugden cofounded One Four Nine, an IFA firm that does just that.We talk about why they started the firm and why they settled on the strategy they did. We discuss the challenges of getting a new firm off the ground, including developing a strategy that will satisfy funders and getting the right compliance in place. Matthew also gives his views on how to give best advice in this area and the challenges of doing that. We talk about the complexity of advice and the need to get investment and tax aspects right. We also explore issues in the market, such as reporting, transparency and platforms and how he sees the market developing in the future.One Four Nine Group website: https://www.onefourninegroup.co.uk/One Four Nine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/one-four-nine-group/Suggested books:The Jam Retrospective: A Visual History by Agent ProvocateurBioMatthew BugdenChief Executive Officer, One Four Nine GroupHe leads One Four Nine in its pursuit to become one of the UK’s leading independent financial advice and fund management groups.With a career spanning over 35 years within the financial services industry, Matthew has enviable strategic management experience and a significant network of relationships with financial advisers, their support teams and professional connections. Previously working at one the UK’s leading alternative investment managers for 18 years, he and his large team was responsible for its direction and interaction with financial advisers and successfully built and maintained relationships across the entire advice sector, whilst raising in excess of £8 billion through tax efficient alternative investments. The first 16 years of his career were spent working across corporate and retail banking clients for a major bank prior to moving to a large corporate client.Matthew is perfectly placed to talk to owners of financial advice firms on how they can spend more time doing what they enjoy – delivering excellent service to and quality outcomes for One Four Nine clients.