Don't invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2 mins to learn more.
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Due to the potential for losses, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) considers this investment to be high risk.
What are the key risks?
- You could lose all the money you invest
- If the business you invest in fails, you are likely to lose 100% of the money you invested. Most start-up businesses fail.
- You are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong
- Protection from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), in relation to claims against failed regulated firms, does not cover poor investment performance. Try the FSCS investment protection checker here.
- Protection from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) does not cover poor investment performance. If you have a complaint against an FCA-regulated firm, FOS may be able to consider it. Learn more about FOS protection here.
- You won’t get your money back quickly
- Even if the business you invest in is successful, it may take several years to get your money back. You are unlikely to be able to sell your investment early.
- The most likely way to get your money back is if the business is bought by another business or lists its shares on an exchange such as the London Stock Exchange. These events are not common.
- If you are investing in a start-up business, you should not expect to get your money back through dividends. Start-up businesses rarely pay these.
- Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
- Putting all your money into a single business or type of investment for example, is risky. Spreading your money across different investments makes you less dependent on any one to do well.
- A good rule of thumb is not to invest more than 10% of your money in high-risk investments.
- The value of your investment can be reduced
- The percentage of the business that you own will decrease if the business issues more shares. This could mean that the value of your investment reduces, depending on how much the business grows. Most start-up businesses issue multiple rounds of shares.
- These new shares could have additional rights that your shares don’t have, such as the right to receive a fixed dividend, which could further reduce your chances of getting a return on your investment.
If you are interested in learning more about how to protect yourself, visit the FCA’s website here.
| Sector: | Technology |
|---|---|
| Target return: | Unspecified |
| Minimum investment: | £25,000 |
| Targeted allotment: | 12 to 24 months |
| Next deadline: | 13 Feb 2026 |
Important documents
| Sector: | Technology |
|---|---|
| Target return: | Unspecified |
| Minimum investment: | £25,000 |
| Targeted allotment: | 12 to 24 months |
| Next deadline: | 13 Feb 2026 |
Important documents
Amadeus Capital Partners (‘Amadeus’) is one of the UK’s leading venture capital firms.
The business was co-founded in 1997 by Hermann Hauser, previously co-founder of Acorn Computers, which spun out the UK tech giant Arm, and Anne Glover, a venture capitalist for over 30 years, and Yale Corporation investment committee member.
Since 1997, Amadeus has raised over $1.3 billion and invested in more than 190 companies. Of these, 47 have led to profitable exits with an average return of 3.4x (November 2025) – past performance is not a guide to the future.
The Amadeus Early Stage EIS Fund was launched in 2015, allowing investment in a highly selective EIS portfolio alongside Amadeus’s venture capital funds.
It aims to invest in companies developing innovative technologies and has previously invested in some of the UK’s most exciting start-ups, including PolyAI, the conversational AI assistant (see below), Paragraf, the graphene-based electronic device maker, and Riverlane, which has developed technology to reduce errors in quantum computing.
- Planned holding period of three to eight years, not guaranteed – unspecified target return
- Target portfolio of four to seven companies, deploying investors' funds over 12 to 24 months, not guaranteed
- Minimum investment £25,000 – you can apply online
- Deadline: 13 February 2026
Important: The information on this website is for experienced investors. It is not advice nor a research or personal recommendation to invest. If you’re unsure, please seek advice. Investments are for the long term. They are high risk and illiquid and can fall as well as rise in value: you could lose all the money you invest.
The manager
Since inception in 1997, Amadeus has raised over $1.3 billion and invested in more than 190 companies.
It operates two distinct investment strategies: Early-Stage Deep Tech in the UK and Growth and Secondary Investments in Europe.
Anne Glover CBE and Hermann Hauser KBE founded the business in 1997 and, together with Partner Amelia Armour, constitute the investment committee of the Amadeus Early Stage EIS Fund.
Amelia Armour is the lead fund manager for the Amadeus Early Stage EIS Fund. She previously worked at Barclays Investment Bank and Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Amelia sits on several portfolio company boards and is a mentor for Cambridge Judge Business School.
Anne Glover, CEO, has over 30 years’ experience in venture capital. She joined Apax Partners in 1989 to invest in early-stage businesses before co-founding Amadeus in 1997. She currently sits on the investment committee of Yale’s $44.1 billion Endowment, is a Non-Executive Director at the Bank of England, and serves on the UK’s Venture Capital Investment Committee. Anne was awarded a CBE in 2006 and a Damehood in 2025 for her contribution to science, engineering, and business.
Hermann Hauser, Venture Partner, is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of more than 20 high-tech companies, including Acorn Computers, which later span out Arm, the semiconductor and software design company. Arm listed in 1998 before being acquired by SoftBank in 2016 at a $32 billion valuation. Hermann was made an honorary KBE in 2015 for services to engineering and industry.
The investment committee is supported by a further three partners, three investment professionals, as well as three venture partners and wider in-house resources.
Before your subscription is invested, the cash will be held by the custodian, Apex Unitas Limited (formerly Mainspring Nominees Limited). After investment, shares will be held by the nominee, MNL Nominees Limited.
Meet the manager
Watch our interview with Amelia Armour of Amadeus Capital Partners
Investment strategy
The Amadeus Early Stage EIS Fund co-invests with Amadeus’s early-stage venture capital funds in EIS-qualifying, start-up and early-stage technology companies and benefits from the board seats and access to information arising from the venture capital holding.
The fund is focused on the following sub-sectors:
- AI and Cybersecurity
- Photonics & Quantum
- Synthetic Biology
- MedTech & Digital Health
- Novel Materials
- Climate Tech & Sustainability
The team looks for several attributes when making an investment, including a strong management team, a competitive advantage, under-served customer need, a large and growing addressable market and global potential.
Amadeus believes by extensively benchmarking against these criteria, it can reduce – albeit not remove – the risks involved in making early-stage investments.
A key pillar of the investment strategy is the strong reputation as entrepreneurs, investors, and mentors Amadeus enjoys – these are all significant factors in attracting talented teams and founders. The team has also built an extensive network of investor and industry contacts who could be brought in to help accelerate the development of its investee companies.
The Fund does not specify a target return. Prior to its initial investment, Amadeus assesses each company, seeking those it believes have the potential to become a $1 billion business. The EIS fund will usually co-invest alongside Amadeus’s institutional funds, albeit often at a later stage, at which point the initial $1 billion potential may have changed, but a high return on invested capital is still targeted – not guaranteed.
Portfolio
The EIS Fund looks to build a portfolio of four to seven early-stage EIS technology companies for each investor. The companies listed below are examples of previous investments in the EIS fund. They are outlined to give a flavour of the types of companies you might expect but are unlikely to be part of a new investor's portfolio.
Recent investment
Pimloc
London is estimated to have one CCTV camera for every 13 residents, a widespread surveillance network that constantly captures sensitive biometric and identifiable data. As with any stored information, this footage is vulnerable to cyberattacks or misuse.
Instead of relying on secure storage, Pimloc’s technology protects personal data by anonymising it before it’s stored. Its platform, Secure Redact, automatically detects and anonymises content in videos and audio, through recording devices like CCTV or body-worn cameras. This helps organisations meet compliance requirements while improving public data protection. With redaction speeds over 280 times faster than manual methods, it also saves companies time and cuts costs. The technology is used by major organisations, including the NHS, Aviva, and DHL.
In July 2025, Pimloc raised $5 million in a funding round co-led by Amadeus and Edge Ventures. The EIS Fund invested £150,000, with the funding set to help the company accelerate its expansion across the US and Europe.
PolyAI
The idea of answering customer enquiries using robots has been around for a long time yet many solutions struggle to deliver satisfactory results. In 2017, PolyAI was founded to address this.
Founders Nikola Mrkšić, Tsung-Hsien Wen, and Pei-Hao Su met at the Machine Intelligence Lab at the University of Cambridge after tenures at Apple, Google and Facebook respectively. The business helps its clients deliver first-class customer service through conversational AI.
Today, PolyAI’s technology is used in the banking, hospitality, insurance, retail, and telecoms sectors. The business has clients in Europe, US and Asia, and includes some of the world’s most recognisable brands such as Marriott, FedEx and Carnival.
In 2024, PolyAI completed a $50 million Series C round, backed by investors including NVentures – NVIDIA’s venture capital arm.
In total, the fund has invested £430,000 having first backed the business in January 2019. In October 2024, it sold part of its stake for a 4.6x return. The remaining holding is valued at £442,000 against a cost of £374,000 (June 2025). Past performance is not a guide to the future.
Example of previous exit
Ravelin
Ravelin was founded by a team of five in 2014 to address the gap for a fast, accurate anti-fraud tool for online businesses. Its machine-learning platform is now used by merchants – including Deliveroo, Just Eat, Spotify, Trainline, Frasers Group, River Island and Booking.com – to analyse all ecommerce transactions and spot and block fraudsters in real time.
Amadeus first invested in the business in 2015 as part of the company’s seed round. Since then, Ravelin has gone onto raise a $20 million Series C round.
The Amadeus Early Stage EIS Fund initially invested into Ravelin in June 2020. In February 2025, Ravelin was acquired through a trade sale, returning £205,000 to the fund, a 2.1x return on cost. Past performance is not a guide to the future.
Example of previous failure
Glysure
As can be expected, not all investments work out. One example is Glysure.
Glysure developed a continuous blood glucose monitoring device designed to reduce the incidence of sepsis, renal failure, and mortality. Amadeus Early Stage EIS Fund invested in August 2015.
Unfortunately, the device did not gain commercial traction, even after receiving the CE Mark. After an extensive – but unsuccessful – effort to sell the company, the board decided to focus on selling its intellectual property.
In December 2018, a transaction with Baxter Inc was concluded for £650k and the proceeds, after transaction costs and the payment of loan note holders, were not sufficient to yield a return to the Amadeus EIS Fund.
Performance
Across its fund range, Amadeus has invested in over 190 companies. Of these, 47 have led to profitable exits with an average return of 3.4x (November 2025). Past performance is not a guide to the future.
The Amadeus Early Stage EIS Fund launched in 2015 and has invested £6.8 million in 24 companies. To date, the fund has realised £2.6 million in proceeds with a remaining portfolio value of £7.4 million (June 2025).
The chart below shows the average performance of the total subscribed into the funds in each of the last 10 full tax years (or from when the current strategy was adopted if later). The chart is based on the latest valuations provided by the manager, expressed on a £100 invested basis. Please note, individual investor portfolios’ performance will deviate from the average.
Performance per £100 invested per tax year
* The Fund did not take any subscriptions during the 2020/2021 tax year.
Source: Amadeus Capital, as at 30 June 2025. Past performance is not a guide to future performance. The chart shows realised returns (where share proceeds have been returned to investors as cash) and unrealised returns (where cash has not yet been returned and the value of the investments is based on the manager’s own valuation methodology). There is no ready market for unlisted shares. The figures shown are net of all fees and do not include any income tax relief or loss relief.
Risks – important
This, like all investments available through Wealth Club, is only for experienced investors happy to make their own investment decisions without advice.
EIS investments are high-risk and should only form part of a balanced portfolio. As must be expected with early-stage investments, some or even all of the companies in the portfolio could fail: the fewer the companies included in the portfolio, the higher the risk of loss if things don’t go to plan. You should not invest money you cannot afford to lose.
There is no ready market for unlisted EIS shares: they are illiquid and hard to sell and value. There will need to be an exit for you to receive a realised return on your investment. Exits are likely to take considerably longer than the three-year minimum EIS holding period; equally, an exit within three years could impact tax relief.
To claim tax relief, you will need EIS3 certificates, normally issued once shares have been allotted. This can take several months: please check the deployment timescales carefully. Tax reliefs depend on the portfolio companies maintaining their EIS-qualifying status. Remember, tax rules can change and benefits depend on circumstances.
Please note Amadeus intends to invest in between four and seven investee companies, which may result in a concentrated – and therefore higher risk – portfolio. Before you invest, please carefully read the Risks and Commitments and the offer documents to ensure you fully understand the risks.
Charges
A summary of the main charges and savings is shown below. Some of these will be payable by the investor, others by the investee companies. The investment may have additional charges and expenses: please see the provider documents, including the Key Information Document, for more details.
| Investor charges | |
|---|---|
| Initial charge | 3% |
| Annual management charge | 2.5% decreasing to 0% over time |
| Administration charge | — |
| Dealing charge |
from 0.35% |
| Performance fee | 20% |
| Investee company charges | |
| Initial charge | — |
| Annual charges | — |
The fees and charges above are stated exclusive of VAT, which applies in some cases, as determined by the manager. Please check the VAT position carefully in the provider documents. Any fees and charges payable by the investee companies or the underlying businesses do not directly come out of your investment. However, they will effectively reduce the returns generated by investee companies and therefore impact your investment.
More detail on the charges
When you invest through us, Wealth Club will receive initial commission (3%) and trail commission (0%) paid by the provider – there is no additional cost to you.
Any charges deducted from the subscription will reduce the amount invested and on which tax relief can be claimed.
Any investee company charges are levied on the underlying companies. They will not affect the amount of tax relief available but can still impact investor returns.
The performance fee applies on returns in excess of £1.00 per £1 invested. Whilst not uncommon, this is a low hurdle. Performance fees are calculated on a portfolio basis.
Other charges apply. Please see the provider’s documents, including the Key Information Document, for more details.
Our view
The very best start-ups and entrepreneurs have their pick of investors and Amadeus's strong reputation has historically helped it attract high-quality entrepreneurs and investment opportunities.
That reputation is underpinned by the pedigree of its co-founders. Herman Hauser, dubbed “the father of Silicon Fen”, co-founded Acorn Computers and Arm, two of the UK’s most successful tech firms. Anne Glover adds over 30 years of venture capital experience and sits on several prestigious boards, including the Yale University Endowment and Bank of England’s Court of Directors.
Amadeus does not run a large EIS fund business. It typically makes just a handful of EIS-qualifying investments a year, co-investing alongside its early-stage venture capital funds. As a result, investors’ portfolios are likely to be concentrated.
The fund might appeal to investors looking to bolster a wider investment portfolio with exposure to a highly selective deep technology EIS portfolio. We see this as a rare opportunity to gain exposure to one of the UK’s leading early-stage investors, available exclusively without advice through Wealth Club.
This financial promotion has been communicated and approved by Wealth Club Ltd on 6 January 2026
Wealth Club aims to make it easier for experienced investors to find information on – and apply for – investments. You should base your investment decision on the offer documents and ensure you have read and fully understand them before investing. The information on this webpage is a marketing communication. It is not advice or a personal or research recommendation to buy any of the investments mentioned, nor does it include any opinion as to the present or future value or price of these investments. It does not satisfy legal requirements promoting investment research independence and is thus not subject to prohibitions on dealing ahead of its dissemination.