The SEIS scheme is only 13 years old, but it has already supported several start-up businesses that have made stellar progress. Cognism, for example, is a sales-intelligence platform (it uses data to optimise sales strategies) that was founded in London in 2015. It raised £380,000 in 2017, including money from SFC Capital’s Startup Funding Club SEIS Fund, and has subsequently paid out to investors several times, delivering a sixfold return on their money. The company is now valued at around £460m.
Onfido, the digital-security specialist, is another Startup Funding Club SEIS Fund alumnus, having raised £120,000 through the scheme in 2013. Last year, the company was sold to Entrust, a US-based secure-payments group, reportedly for more than £500m.
At Fuel Ventures, meanwhile, James Steel points to Hotel Manager, a technology…