Kuber Fund in Focus – Start-Up Series SEIS Fund
Start-Up Series SEIS Fund
The founders of Worth Capital are brand, marketing, retail and innovation experts that have been angel investing for 12 years. They have an enviable record of seed investing and actively helping entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into successful, sustainable and fast growing businesses. They have developed an origination methodology, through sophisticated distillation of competition entrants, that has been designed to ‘stack the odds of seed investment’ through selecting and guiding promising consumer goods and services companies.
Worth Capital have a powerful model based on business competitions that are a highly effective and innovative way to seek out the most valuable ideas and committed, ambitious, talented entrepreneurs. Their model has been to run a broad range of competitions, driven through media outlets such as Metro newspaper and Facebook, with an average £300,000 raised for each competition, historically sourced through crowdfunding on Seedrs. The monies raised were invested in one winner and two runners up.
Building on the success of previous competitions, Worth Capital have introduced the Start Up Series, a high profile search for talented UK entrepreneurs. Its target fund total of £2.1M makes the Start Up Series the largest seed funding competition of its type in the UK. It is being promoted by Startups.co.uk, a leading online portal designed to bring innovative ideas and funding together under one e-enabled ‘roof’ which sees 400k monthly unique visitors.
The Start-Up Series will target consumer start-ups: the creation of new products & services to buy, and the ways that we buy them. ‘Tech’ is not specifically being targeted, although technology based disruptions to the target sectors will be expected and encouraged.
The Start-Up Series Fund (SEIS) enables investors to hold equity in one or more Tranches of qualified winners of the Start-Up Series, along with possible discretionary investments in other SEIS-eligible companies. This will give eligible investors the benefits of SEIS associated tax reliefs alongside the potential growth in these exciting winners. Start-Up Series Fund (SEIS) is managed by Amersham Investment Management, commercially advised by Worth Capital.
Due diligence is at the heart of the selection process, as detailed in the below diagram, involving several established and successful entrepreneurs and business angels. A comprehensive multi-stage assessment, filtering and judging process has been developed which includes plenty of time face-to-face with the short-listed entrepreneurs to help guarantee the quality of the winners and fair valuations.
In closing Tranche 1, the Start-Up Series Fund One has invested in four businesses, all of which received SEIS investment of £150,000. An overview of these businesses, plus two which have been selected, subject to due diligence, to receive investment from Tranche 2 of the Fund, can be seen here.
The Start -Up Series SEIS Fund One is managed by Amersham Investment Management Ltd, a specialist investment management firm and Alternative Investment Fund Manager currently managing assets including in excess of £26m of SEIS/EIS funds.
| Build Up | Simple entries & First filter | Full submissions & distillation | Deep dives & final selection | Investment & accelerated growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifiers | Finalists | Monthly Winners | ||
|
Pre Publicity PR into press, social media, events University, accelerator, incubator outreach by brand sponsor when applicable |
on-going promotion Simple online application- choice of video of two page written- focused on the idea & the entrepreneur First filter to “qualifiers” Simple feedback (standard reasons) to those not going forward |
brief the qualifiers for more detailed business plan Entrepreneurs have time to complete comprehensive business plan questions – captured in distillation portal |
A half day ‘deep dive’ with each finalist
Final valuation Final selection Celebration & publicity |
Final due diligence and investments made Monitoring, momentum& inspiration from Investor Director through bi-monthly board meetings Benefitting from Worth Capital network of entrepreneurs Further funding rounds |
| Publicity & expectation, the go-to competitionfor entrepreneurs looking for funding | Qualifiers with the most attractive ideas chosen from the entries | Finalists taken to the next round for more in-depth analysis | 1 winner with a compelling commercial opportunity and high performing team | accelerated growth & follow on funding opportunities |
Start-Up Series one …watch it here
If you are interested in further information about the Start Up Series One, please contact us on info@kuberventures.com or +44 (0) 20 7952 6685
