EMV Capital wins ‘EIS Newcomer of the Year’
EMV Capital (www.emvcapital.com) was recently awarded ‘Best EIS Newcomer 2018’ at the EIS Association Awards for its differentiated investment strategy in the knowledge-intensive space. The award judges commended EMV Capital for its ‘innovative approach working together with industrial corporate venturing teams … resulting in… reduced time to market and return of capital to investors’.
Who is EMV Capital?
Based at Canary Wharf’s Level 39, EMV Capital invests in companies spanning multiple technology horizontals in the industrial high-tech, energy transition, smart cities and mobility sectors. Corporate relationships are key to the investment strategy. Since 2013 the EMV Capital team has co-led or joined investments with the participation of the likes of ABB Ventures, Evonik, Zeiss, Flextronics, Philips Lighting (Signify), alongside multiple family offices. Investments are in both UK, and non-UK companies with a strong UK growth focus, including: London-based Q-Bot (www.q-bot.co), a robotics and automation company in the construction industry; and Tel Aviv-based Pointgrab (www.pointgrab.com), a machine vision company targeting the UK market with an advanced facility management sensing solution.
Corporate connections are key for industrial SMEs to scale but are often difficult for small players to access successfully. Early corporate involvement can help validate a company’s technology and market, accelerate the development path, provide access to corporate resources, routes to market, and potentially an exit channel. EMV Capital’s experience can help the Fund portfolio companies approach and build relationships with corporates at an earlier stage than would otherwise be possible.
According to Dr. Ilian Iliev, Managing Director of EMV Capital:
“We don’t invest in blue-sky projects. Instead we look to companies with proven technologies ready for scale-up. Our maxim ‘Backing Ambition, Investing in Execution’ refers to our strong focus on co-development with portfolio teams to support their vision with strong execution strategies post-investment. We work closely with corporates to help the portfolio companies scale and expand internationally faster than through a traditional EIS investment strategy.”
What are the differentiators of the EMVC Evergreen EIS Fund?
Investing in knowledge-intensive UK SMEs requires a unique investment selection, structuring and management approach. In the current EIS environment, traditional strategies may be insufficient, restricting internationalisation of companies due to limited access to global pools of capital. By contrast, EMV Capital’s approach combines the EIS Fund into a broader investment platform alongside non-EIS investment sources and corporate investors. For target companies, EMV Capital can provide an investment solution from early-stage investment through to exit.
You can read more about EMV Capital on www.emvcapital.com/eis_fund. Subscriptions to the EMVC Evergreen EIS Fund can be made directly through EMV Capital, or EIS investment platforms such as Wealth Club, Growth Invest, and Kuber Ventures.
EMV Capital is exclusive advisor to the EMVC Evergreen EIS Fund. The fund is managed by EIS Fund specialist Sapphire Capital Partners.
You can read the full article here, p.21: City AM – ‘EMV Capital wins ‘EIS Newcomer of the Year‘