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.
Estimated reading time: 2 min
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: | 5x |
| Minimum investment: | £20,000 |
| Targeted allotment: | 2025/26 |
| Next deadline: | 30 Sep 2025 |
Important documents
| Sector: | Technology |
|---|---|
| Target return: | 5x |
| Minimum investment: | £20,000 |
| Targeted allotment: | 2025/26 |
| Next deadline: | 30 Sep 2025 |
Important documents
£500k exclusive allocation for Wealth Club investors
Managed by successful entrepreneur Mark Pearson – backing promising companies from Fuel’s earlier-stage funds – the Fuel Ventures Follow-on Fund aims to back fast-growing digital marketplaces, platforms and software as a service (SaaS) businesses. The team draws on its first-hand operational experience to accelerate portfolio companies’ growth.
To date, Fuel Ventures has invested £242 million into 195 EIS and SEIS-qualifying companies (July 2025).
The Follow-on EIS Fund is one of two EIS funds. It invests in companies Fuel Ventures has backed in earlier portfolios, provided they have started to generate revenue and Fuel Ventures believes they are showing encouraging progress.
Since its inception in 2019, the Follow-on EIS Fund has invested £74.4 million into 41 companies. It has achieved two full and two partial exits, generating total exit proceeds of £22.6 million, with a remaining portfolio balance of £72.9 million. Past performance is not a guide to the future.
- Target return of 5x after 10 years – not guaranteed
- Target portfolio of at least five companies– not guaranteed
- Exclusive minimum investment £20,000 (normally £50,000 for non-advised investors)
- Deadline: 30 September, for targeted deployment by December 2025, not guaranteed
Important: The information on this website is for experienced investors. It is not a 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
Fuel Ventures operates four funds: the SEIS Fund, Follow-on EIS Fund, the Scale-Up EIS Fund, and the Fuel Ventures VCT.
Fuel Ventures was founded in 2014 by successful entrepreneur Mark Pearson. He had previously founded online voucher code company, MyVoucherCodes, then sold as part of parent company Markco Media for a reported £55 million. Whilst running MyVoucherCodes, Mark made personal investments in nine technology and software businesses. Fuel Ventures was born as a result of his experience with these early-stage businesses.
Since its inception, Fuel has invested £242 million into 195 EIS and SEIS qualifying companies.
Fuel Ventures has 16 full-time staff. There are seven investment professionals: four dedicated to EIS/VCT and three to SEIS. Both investment teams are overseen by Mark, who has the final say on investment decisions. In addition, an eight-strong fundraising team helps raise capital both for Fuel’s funds and its portfolio companies, whilst a talent team assists founders with hiring.
Fuel Ventures Limited, an appointed representative of Palace Ventures Ltd, is the investment advisor to the fund. The investment manager is Sapphire Capital Partners LLP.
Before your subscription is invested, the cash will be held by the custodian, Apex Unitas Limited. Shares will be held by the nominee, MNL Nominees Limited.
What is the difference between the Fuel Ventures EIS funds?
Fuel Ventures operates two EIS funds, each targeting investments in young digital businesses at different funding stages.
- The Fuel Ventures Scale‑up EIS fund invests in early-stage companies between Seed and Series A funding rounds, which could include deal flow from the SEIS fund
- The Fuel Ventures Follow‑on EIS fund seeks to provide follow-on funding to what the manager considers to be the strongest performing companies from the SEIS and Scale‑up EIS funds. Fuel Ventures can also use its discretion to invest in new companies it believes are attractive.
Investment strategy
Fuel invests in early-stage digital businesses it believes have the potential to scale globally. It seeks marketplaces, platforms, and SaaS companies. Fuel Ventures believes these are attractive as they tend to be easily scalable, have low costs per unit sold, and – once a product starts generating revenue – growth is typically limited only by market demand, not the ability of the business to supply it.
Fuel believes two of the biggest challenges founders face when growing a business are fundraising and hiring new talent, so it provides support through dedicated fundraising and talent development teams.
Mark Pearson and the Fuel team typically expect to engage with each company monthly during the first twelve months from investment, and when needed thereafter, as the company matures and later-stage investors may be involved.
Fuel Ventures believes its sector expertise and scale, together with the support it offers, are a key competitive advantage, allowing it to attract high-quality EIS opportunities.
Follow-on strategy
The Follow-on Fund looks to back the top-performing companies from Fuel Ventures’ earlier-stage portfolios, provided the team considers the valuation attractive.
Fuel Ventures believes this could somewhat mitigate risks, as these companies are more mature, generating revenues and showing progress. In addition, Fuel should have a good understanding of the business. Note, however, this is still a high-risk investment.
The investment manager can also use its discretion to invest in new companies it believes are attractive.
Portfolio
Subscriptions are expected to be invested into at least five companies.
Fuel has so far raised 10 follow-on funds, starting in 2019. Previous iterations have invested £74.4 million into 41 companies.
Below are examples of previous investments. 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
Cult Mia
Cult Mia was founded in 2019 by Stanford graduate and LBS alum Nina Briance, after starting her career in finance (UBS and Goldman Sachs). The idea came during her MBA internship at online luxury fashion retailer Moda Operandi. She noticed the market was divided between established luxury retailers and fast-fashion brands, with a gap in between.
Cult Mia was set up to fill this gap: it’s a curated marketplace offering exclusive, one-of-a-kind, ethically made collections from the world’s newest independent designers. Out of approximately 275 designers who apply each month, only 10% are accepted.
The company has enjoyed early traction: it has onboarded over 400 brands from more than 40 countries and currently has 278,000 customers. It achieved a 191% year-over-year revenue increase in 2024 and was named the fastest-growing fashion startup in the Sifted 100 (UK & Ireland) 2025.
Fuel Ventures first invested £1.65 million in October 2023 via its Scale-up EIS fund and provided an additional £1.3 million in April 2025 via its Follow-on Fund.
Peckwater Brands
Demand for food delivery remains strong despite the rising cost of living, with around a third of UK adults eating at least one takeaway per week in 2024. In fact, the UK’s online food delivery market is thought to be the third largest in the world after the US and China.
Virtual food brand operator Peckwater Brands was set to capitalise on this. It provides restaurants with everything they need to take and fulfil delivery orders: branding, platform listings, suppliers, recipes, packaging, staff training, and technology.
Following the acquisition of eatclever, a virtual delivery brand in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Peckwater has grown to 600 sites, with operations in 12 countries including the US, United Arab Emirates, and France.
The Fuel Scale-Up fund first invested £2 million in September 2021 alongside Pembroke VCT at a valuation of £7.4 million. The Fuel Follow-on fund has invested an additional £3.5 million alongside investors such as Softbank Investments. The most recent funding round in 2024 valued the business at around £77 million (post money). Past performance is not a guide to the future.
Example of previous exit
Arbolus
Arbolus has created AI tools to modernise the largely analog “expert network” industry. Its platform connects experts in a particular field to businesses looking for that particular expertise – a global market worth an estimated $2.3 billion.
The business was founded in 2018 by Sam Glasswell and Will Leeming, two entrepreneurs with previous experience of helping scale a $1 billion company.
The team has created an AI-powered marketplace to make it easier for businesses and the right subject-matter experts to find each other.
Arbolus has grown to a team of around 200 globally – with offices in London, New York, Barcelona and Delhi – and hundreds of clients worldwide.
Fuel first invested in 2019 through its Scale-up EIS Fund, and subsequently through its Follow-on EIS Fund in 2020 and 2023 – a total of £3.7 million. In March 2025, it announced a partial exit from the earlier investments, which generated proceeds of £6.9 million, a realised return of up to 5.8x. The remaining holding is valued at £6.7 million. Past performance is not a guide to the future.
Example of previous failure
The Moot Group
As with any early-stage investment, not all will work out. The Moot Group is an example.
The Moot Group started out as Olivia’s, an online homeware and furniture brand. It then evolved into offering its own e-commerce technology, which managed everything from customer acquisition to supply chains. Despite some early traction, which saw the business raise further debt and equity finance, it failed to maintain its level of growth and in 2022 breached the covenants on its debt facility.
The Moot Group was placed into receivership in February 2023. Fuel Ventures EIS funds invested £4.2 million (£3.6 million from the Follow-on funds). Fuel Ventures has written its investment down to nil.
Performance
Since its inception in 2019, the Follow-on EIS Fund has invested £74.4 million into 41 companies. The fund has achieved two full and two partial exits, generating exit proceeds of £22.6 million. It has a remaining portfolio balance of £72.9 million.
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 in each tax year
Source: Fuel Ventures, as at 17 July 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.
Before you invest, please carefully read the Risks and Commitments and the offer documents to ensure you fully understand the risks.
The fund relies heavily on the knowledge and experience of Mark Pearson. He’s wholly committed to Fuel Ventures, but there is key-person risk. As the number of companies grows, he will not be able to provide the same level of coaching and support to all Fuel Ventures portfolio companies.
Charges
A summary of the main charges is shown below. Some of these will be payable by the investor, whilst 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 | — |
| Annual management charge | — |
| Administration charge | — |
| Dealing charge |
— |
| Performance fee | 20% |
| Investee company charges | |
| Initial charge | 2.5% |
| Annual charges | 2% |
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 an initial commission (4%) and trail commission (0%). These are 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 £1.20 per £1 invested. Performance fees are calculated on a portfolio basis.
Other changes apply. Please see the provider’s documents, including the Key Information Document, for more details.
Our view
In our view, this EIS fund is run by a credible – and to date successful – entrepreneur turned investor. Fuel Ventures has now invested more than £240 million into over 190 companies, establishing itself as a destination for marketplaces, online platforms and SaaS businesses looking for early-stage growth capital.
Fuel Ventures has also shown an ability to back some of the UK’s fastest-growing digital start-ups. It has achieved five full or partial exits for its EIS funds, returning a total of £40 million to investors and several portfolio companies have raised further funding rounds at higher valuations. Note, there have also been failures, as must be expected when investing in high-risk early-stage companies.
The fund’s strategy, to provide follow-on funding to some of the most promising investee companies backed by Fuel Ventures, whilst limiting the fund to a narrow opportunity set, could be a valuable filter. Fuel Ventures will have known and worked with each business before committing investor capital.
This is a concentrated and high-risk portfolio of at least five software and technology companies with little diversification. The offer could appeal to experienced investors looking to complement a wider portfolio with exposure to early-stage digital businesses.
This financial promotion has been communicated and approved by Wealth Club Ltd on 31 July 2025
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.