The 14th EIS Association Annual Awards took place last night at the House of Lords. The Awards denote excellence in a number of EIS and SEIS fields. The Awards were presented to firms, advisers, companies, individuals and journalists that achieved outstanding performance in the context of the EIS & SEIS schemes during 2018. This year we have taken feedback and freshened up both our awards categories and our awards scoring systems in order to ensure the broadest possible cross spectrum of entrants. By doing so, we hope to celebrate the best of the best from all areas of our industry.
View from the judges
The revamping of this year’s awards gave us an additional and even greater insight into the significant amount of work being undertaken in the EIS/SEIS industry. It is only when you take on a role such as an EISA judge that you appreciate the breadth and diversity of work that this industry generates.
With more entries than ever before and more new entrants than ever before, the awards give us an opportunity to get a snapshot of the EIS/SEIS landscape and from the entries we have seen the industry appears to be in excellent health.
The standard of this year’s EISA Awards submissions has been astonishingly high and in every category there was more than one worthy winner. It’s a shame we can only pick one! We would like to take this opportunity to thank all entrants for their submissions and if you haven’t entered this year then please do so next year.
The members of the independent judging panel for the Awards were:
- Cliff Dennett – Head of Commercial – Innovation Birmingham Ltd
- Charlotte Goggin – Barclays – Relationship Director, Technology
- Ewoud Karelse – Tilney – Product Specialist
- Declan McAndrew, Foster Denovo – Head of Investment Research
- Lee Moran – 1825 – Chair of the Investment Committee & Head of Research
- Deepali Nangia – Angel investor and business adviser
- Hywel Rees-Jones – Extensive portfolio of Board and NED roles in private equity
- Malcolm Snook – MPL Wealth Management – Senior Financial Planning Manager
The winners of this year’s awards and those highly commended by the judges are listed below. Additional feedback for those entries. Additional feedback for those entries not shortlisted will be sent to individual entrants
Best EIS Fund Manager/Sponsor, sponsored by Mainspring
Highly Commended: Mercia Fund Manager
Winner – Parkwalk Advisors
An impressive manager with a strong track record and regular exits. Exactly what the regulator is looking for helping create new innovative businesses and funding new start ups
Best SEIS Fund Manager, sponsored by Exact Libris
Highly Commended – Sapphire Capital Partners
Winner – Deepbridge Capital
A strong entry, fulfilling the criteria fully in a number of areas. A clear focus and willingness to reach out to the wider finance sector including the financial planners. Valuations of investments are healthy with no failures as yet and pleasing to see a strong commitment to diversity issues.
Best EIS/SEIS Tax Adviser, sponsored by Newable
Highly Commended – Chiene & Tait
Winner – Shoosmiths
Excellent examples were provided which highlighted how this firm are thought leaders in this space. It is clear that they engage and provide significant assistance across the board from investee companies to fund providers and advisers
Best EIS/SEIS Legal or Regulatory Adviser, sponsored by Aston Lark
Highly Commended – Charles Russell Speechlys
Winner – BWB Compliance, Bates Wells Braithwaite
A strong entry, and another very good year for this firm. Promotion of EIS is evidenced by the pro bono recorded time and representation at wider VC forums. The various forms of community media for spreading the word and thought leadership are a testament to a distinctive style.
Best EIS/SEIS Investment Exit, sponsored by Edwin Coe
Highly Commended – Seneca Partners
Winner – Par Equity
Great investor return, great return for the local economy and great impact on the education sector. An active manager delivering on its promises
Best Financial Planner, sponsored by Guinness Asset Management
Highly Commended – Gerald Burns
Winner – Carla Brown
The submission offered a clear holistic financial planning approach to the client scenario, taking into account the clients’ needs, both financial and crucially emotional. A solid and highly commendable example of using EIS as part of an overall financial planning solution
Best Newcomer, sponsored by Downing
Highly Commended – Hambro Perks
Winner – EMV Capital
An innovative approach working together with industrial corporate venturing teams hopefully resulting in more speedy adoption of technological innovations and reduced time to market and return of capital to investors – makes good use of syndicating with non-tax advantaged funding.
”Spirit of EIS”, sponsored by Deal Partners
Highly Commended – John Glencross
Winner – Growthinvest – Adviser Hour
A significant educational initiative. This has the potential to be a new avenue to grow a whole new audience for EIS across financial planners.
Best EIS/SEIS Journalist, sponsored by Kuber Ventures
Winner – James Hurley – The Times
James has helped bring EIS to the attention of the wider general public through his thoughtful and insightful commentary on the sector and its impact on SMEs
Thank You!
The membership would like to thank Lord Howard Flight for his outstanding work as Chairman on behalf of the EIS Association.
Thank you to our speaker Loyd Grossman CBE
To everyone who contributed to this superb evening and for the support of the board, committees and membership throughout the year. We would like to thank members who host events for the EISA – Charles Russell Speechlys, who host the London Autumn Technical Seminar and PwC who host the London Spring Technical Seminar. Moore Stephens who hosted EISA Fund Managers Forum. BDO, Brown Butler, Veale Wasbrough
Vizards, Gillespie McAndrew, Sapphire Capital and RSM who hosted the Ready, Steady, Grow regional events and other. We would also like to thank Blackfinch, CoInvestor,
Great Point Media, GrowthInvest, Foresight, Ingenious, Jenson Funding Partners and TIME Investments for sponsoring our Effective Financial Planning Using EIS and BR Investments event in December 2018. Martin Fox for organising the award judging process. We would also like to thank Bovill, who provide office space for EISA Thank you to our sponsors
And finally but not least thank you to our sponsors:
