Member Directory

Parkwalk Advisors is one of the UK’s leading technology Enterprise Investment Scheme fund managers. Parkwalk invests in high growth, knowledge intensive companies seeking to develop and commercialise technology and innovation originating from UK universities, research intensive institutions and technology clusters.

Founded in 2009, Parkwalk has assets under management of over £160m and has backed over 85 companies. Parkwalk is now part of IP Group plc, a FTSE 250 company with a market capitalisation of £1.7bn and the UK’s leading developer of intellectual property-based businesses. IP Group has agreements with over 80% of the UK Russell Group Universities, including Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial.

The Parkwalk Opportunities EIS Fund is a growth-targeted investment fund providing investors access to a portfolio of knowledge intensive technology companies, an area the Government continues to support. Investors will get exposure to a range of investments from AIM listed to seed stage companies.

Parkwalk also manages a series of early-stage funds in conjunction with the technology transfer offices of the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Bristol.

PEM, established in 1875, is one of the largest independent firms of accountants, tax, and business advisers, with over 250 professionals based in Cambridge. Known for its expertise in supporting startups and the entrepreneurial ecosystem both locally and nationally, PEM assists businesses with SEIS and EIS requirements. The firm also specialises in R&D tax credits, Patent Box claims, and employee incentive schemes, including EMI options, through to exit planning. PEM’s private client team offers tax and estate planning to help individuals, families, and shareholders. Beyond tax, PEM provides a full range of services, including accounting, audit, corporate finance, virtual finance office, and IT support, ensuring clients have the resources to grow.

Jan Fachot, Partner in PEM’s Business Tax team, has over 20 years of experience advising on EIS and SEIS since its introduction in 2012. With a background in Big 4 and top 10 firms, Jan advises on structuring, transactions, and general business taxation.

PEM is a member of Kreston Global, the 13th largest accounting network worldwide, with over 27,000 professionals in 160 independent firms across 114 countries, providing comprehensive accounting, tax, and business advisory services.

Philip Hare & Associates LLP, a tax consultancy business which specialises in the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS), Seed EIS, Venture Capital Trust (VCT) and Social Investment Tax Relief (SITR).  The firm advises small and medium sized companies and their investors in respect of the tax relief available for investment and the conditions that need to be met by the company and the investor.  They are in regular contact with specialists at HMRC discussing solutions to technical and administrative issues that arise from the schemes. Please contact either Philip Hare Tel: 020 3141 9108 Mobile: 07557 349045.  Email: philip@philiphareassociates.tax  or Andrew Lennie – contact details above.

Praetura Investments is an FCA Authorised Firm having completed its first Venture Capital transaction in 2011, the acquisition and listing of Inspired Energy plc in November of that year. Since, we have grown steadily and have made a further 24 investments on behalf of investors having invested over £100m into high growth tech or IP enabled small businesses.

We’ve built a highly experienced and reputable team within Praetura Investments who bring with them over 250 year of sector experience having raised and transacted over £8bn within the UK.

Headquartered in the North West, the Praetura team have built an enviable network across the region generating strong deal flow and opportunities. The investment strategy has been developed and refined over the previous 8 years and we’ve built a reputation for being able to identify and back high performing, entrepreneurial teams who demonstrate they can execute their plan. As important is our ability to add “more than money”. We look for ways we can add significant value through our team’s skillset, network and experience. Deciding whether we can add value and help shape a company’s growth is critical when we decide where to invest.

Praxis is a firm of Chartered Accountants and Chartered Tax Advisers based in the heart of London, specialising in supporting SMEs through their growth journeys. Praxis provides full accounting and audit compliance, together with commercial and tax advisory support, including R&D tax credits, restructuring, EIS, SEIS, VCT and SITR.

Paragon now rebranded as Price Forbes are an independent Insurance Broker, specialising in providing insurance advice and solutions across the investment ecosystem.

For Investors
We provide a 360° support service for investors, providing coverage for your own professional risks – from investment to exit. We also help you to mitigate your risk by ensuring that your portfolio has comprehensive insurance programmes in place, offering a free review and independent advice.

For Start-ups & Scaling companies
We help entrepreneurs understand what insurances are required legally, for investors, contractually and for regulatory requirements. We design bespoke insurance programmes, that provide crucial protection and peace of mind as you build your business, and provide continued support as you grow and scale.

With offices in 157 countries and more than 195,000 people, PwC is among the leading professional services networks in the world. We work with many of the UK’s growing and successful private businesses and entrepreneurs. Two thirds of our clients are private business owners and individuals.

A key challenge for early stage businesses is being able to access the finance they need to grow and create value. Our Venture Capital team focuses on advising VCTs, EIS/SEIS investors and funds, as well as companies seeking investment under these regimes. The venture capital regimes can be complex and it is critical that clients receive advice they can rely on. Our team of specialists are committed to helping our clients navigate this complexity.

We help individual businesses and funds to raise money from investors while complying with their regulatory obligations. These businesses can then access alternative sources of funding such as crowdfunding and networks of sophisticated investors. We have helped to raise over £200 million for small businesses over the last 5 year and have extensive experience of EIS and SEIS. We have particular expertise in property crowdfunding, technology, green energy and media.

We can act as alternative investment fund manager (AIFM) for your fund; provide your business with regulatory permissions on a monthly basis through our authorised representative service or help your business apply to the FCA to become directly regulated. We have retail permissions and can operate unregulated collective investment schemes (UCIS).

Prosper Capital is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). A full list of the activities that the firm is authorised to carry out can be found on the Financial Services Register on the FCA’s website at https://register.fca.org.uk

Puma Investments is an award-winning investment manager, and a leading provider of growth capital to UK SMEs. We operate across the country from our offices in London, Liverpool and Edinburgh and are part of an organisation that raised its first private equity fund in 1996. Puma has raised over £400 million in tax efficient investments to date.

We are committed to supporting the growth of small and medium-sized businesses across all sectors and regions of the UK. We deliver investment from £2 million to £10 million to help companies achieve their ambitions.

Our investment provides more than capital – it provides partnership. By using our investment insight, multi-sector experience and extensive network, we aim to help accelerate the growth of our investee companies.

Puma Alpha EIS is an evergreen fund that is open to investors throughout the year. The Fund has four closings per year, typically in at the end of each calendar quarter. The Fund seeks to support the growth of
UK SMEs through backing exceptional management teams and aims to give investors exposure to the earnings of quality operating businesses.

PushFar is the world’s leading SaaS technology startup. We focus on providing a mentoring and career progression platform, supporting hundreds of organisations to launch, run and scale mentoring programs, alongside our free and open mentoring network, supporting 100,000+ people. Named by Startups.co.uk as one of Top 100 Startups of 2023, we work with a wide variety of entrepreneurial initiatives, schemes and ventures to ensure mentoring is accessible and effective for everyone, everywhere.

Qkine manufactures high-purity, animal-free growth factors, cytokines, and other complex proteins for life science applications including stem cell and organoid culture. Based in Cambridge, UK, Qkine combines proprietary production processes with protein engineering technology to tackle fundamental biological, quality, and scale-up challenges to provide more reliable tools for research and bio-manufacturing.

As leaders in protein innovation, approximately 30% of our catalogue is formed of unique products. We have developed a portfolio of stable, tag-free growth factors for use in the most popular pluripotency media recipes, and we provide pioneering growth factor forms for scaling organoid cultures. Our product range spans a wide range of applications including hepatocyte, cardiac and neural differentiation, all aimed at increasing reproducibility in your research and manufacturing processes. We actively support and innovate for emerging fields such as cellular agriculture, regenerative medicine, synthetic hydrogels, organ-on-a-chip, and bioprinting.

Qkine is an ISO 9001:2015 certified company with an established global distribution network. With a robust manufacturing process, we can support scale-up and commercial manufacturing by offering lot reservations, bulk orders, custom vialling, and custom QA.