Jenson SEIS Fund

The Jenson SEIS Fund was launched in 2012, the same year SEIS was introduced.

Manager Jenson Funding Partners (“JFP”) is an established early-stage investor. It follows a broadly generalist strategy, with a preference for tech-enabled businesses with a defensible offering. Companies will primarily be sourced from JFP’s existing network and those with potential may ‘graduate’ to its EIS fund. 

To date, the fund has invested £19.0 million into 138 companies. Of these, 76 have failed, and nine have returned cash to investors (six profitably), generating exit proceeds of £3.6 million. The remaining portfolio balance is valued at £13.8 million. Past performance is not a guide to the future. 

• Target return of 3x over 5-7 years – not guaranteed 
  
• Aims to invest in 8 to 12 companies – not guaranteed
• Minimum investment £10,000 – you can apply online 
• Next deadline: 28 April 2024 for June 2024 deployment – not guaranteed
  

The manager

Jenson Solutions Ltd (“JSL”) was established in 2001 by Paul Jenkinson and Sarah Barber, to provide strategic, financial, and operational solutions to small businesses. In response to the introduction of the Seed Investment Enterprise Scheme, the pair set up Jenson Funding Partners (“JFP”) in 2012, with the aim of raising and providing capital to early-stage businesses. 

The funds are managed by a core team of eight, led by co-founder Sarah Barber and Chief Investment Officer Jeffrey Faustin. Sarah is a Chartered Accountant and was part of the team responsible for creating the first Jenson SEIS Fund in 2012. She is now CEO. Jeffrey has a background in engineering and made the transition to finance after completing an MBA in 2012. He joined JFP in 2013 and is now responsible for managing all aspects of the investment process. The investment team will have access to the resources of JSL where required.

Before your subscription is invested, the cash will be held by the custodian, Bennett Brooks & Co Limited. Shares will be held by the nominee, JFP Nominees Limited.

Investment strategy

JFP receives over 2,000 pitches a year through its network of incubators and accelerators, universities, corporate finance houses, professional services providers, VC and PE houses.

Jenson favours companies with scalable business models and some pre-existing momentum, run by ambitious and driven entrepreneurs. These businesses should be addressing market gaps with innovative and disruptive technology.

All potential investee companies are required to make two presentations: first to the review panel and, if successful, to JFP’s investment committee. JFP also conducts extensive pre-selection assessments, interviewing the management teams over a series of calls and meetings to determine their suitability for the fund. 

Post-investment, a JFP portfolio manager or a nominated non-executive director attends board and senior management meetings. Regular contact allows the team to monitor progress and provide support when needed, prepare companies for the next stage of growth as well as help avoid common pitfalls.

The manager will also introduce its investees to trusted third-party service providers. For example, JFP has connected several of its companies with a B2B SaaS professional with experience of scaling operations to help them structure their value propositions and sales processes.

The fund targets a return of £3 for every £1 invested, excluding tax relief, over a period of five to seven years, not guaranteed.

Portfolio

JFP is a generalist investor but prefers technology-based businesses. In total, Jenson has invested in 138 companies since its first SEIS investment in 2012.

SEIS investors will receive a portfolio of eight to 12 companies.

Below are portfolio company examples from previous iterations of the 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. 

Examples of previous portfolio companies

Axioma

Axioma is an online marketplace for car bodywork repairs. It connects car owners with local technicians, repairing paintwork scratches, bumper scuffs, dents and scrapes at competitive prices at customers’ homes.

The business was founded by Stefano Sironi in 2018, and initially expected to sell to auto-insurers, but quickly found that was difficult. So, it pivoted to serve car owners directly – helping them get a better deal by having an industry expert negotiate with technicians on their behalf to get a fair price.

Since 2018, the company has connected thousands of car owners with technicians and now operates across the UK. Long term, it hopes to expand into other service areas as well as expanding internationally. 

The Jenson SEIS fund invested £116,000 in February 2021, with the position now valued at 4x cost. Past performance is not a guide to the future. 

Permia Sensing – recent investment

Permia offers a field testing product to detect Red Palm Weevil in coconut plantations. The insect damages an estimated 10% of the world’s coconut harvest each year, costing around £450 million. While chemical treatments can be effective, infestations need to be detected within the first two weeks. 

Permia Sensing’s solution was developed in the Morph Lab of the Dyson School of Design Engineering at Imperial College London. The company was founded in 2021, and has since developed an AI-powered platform to help growers analyse tree-level data across an entire palm plantation and suggest ways to improve yields. 

The Jenson SEIS fund invested £142,000 in January 2023, at a £1.1 million pre-money valuation.

 OneTouch – example of previous exit

OneTouch was founded by Dermot Clancy and Ray Moloney to develop a digital platform to help care providers manage their operations from a single app. 

The platform can support and streamline scheduling, billing, payroll and financial reporting, as well as including client records and allowing updates to family members. By the time Jenson exited the business in October 2022, OneTouch was supporting the delivery of over 2 million care hours a month. 

Jenson initially invested £150,000 in the business in March 2016, generating a realised return of 8.7x when it sold its stake as part of a significant investment by private equity group August Equity. Past performance is not a guide to the future.

Kitcho – example of previous failure 

As is to be expected with young companies, not all succeed. Kitcho, operator of delivery-only restaurants known as “dark kitchens” is an example.

Jenson originally invested in Kitcho in 2021. The company, trading as The Neighbourhood Kitchen, believed its small margin would increase as the business grew, however in the short term the company proved incredibly vulnerable to price rises. That meant the business was hit hard by the change of economic conditions early in 2022, when energy and food costs rose. A deal that the company had been working on also fell through due to a change in personnel and strategy.

The company did not feel it had a viable business and given the small cash reserves, the decision was made to put the company into liquidation and a liquidator was appointed in December 2022.

Performance

Since its inception, the fund has invested £19.0 million into 138 companies. Of these, 76 have failed, nine have exited, six profitably, generating exit proceeds of £3.6 million. The remaining portfolio balance is valued at £13.8 million (October 2023). Please note: past performance is not a guide to the future.

The chart below shows the average performance of the total subscribed into the funds in each full tax year from 2013/14 (or from when the current strategy was adopted if later) to 2022/23. Please note, individual investor portfolios’ performance will deviate from the average.

Performance per £100 invested in each tax year

Risks – important

This, like all investments available through Wealth Club, is only for experienced investors happy to make their own investment decisions without advice. 

SEIS 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 SEIS 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 SEIS holding period; equally, an exit within three years could impact tax relief.

To claim tax relief, you will need SEIS3 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 SEIS-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. 

Charges

A summary of the main charges and savings 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.

Our view

JFP is an active early-stage investor. It has amassed a sizeable investment portfolio of over 130 investee companies in its 10-year history. JFP may, therefore, be seen as a destination for entrepreneurs seeking seed investment – this could enhance its access to deal flow. While the investment team is small in proportion to the number of companies in the portfolio, JFP has been active in this area for almost a decade and is confident in its ability to continue identifying and supporting promising companies.

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.