What is the Enterprise Investment Scheme?

The Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) was brought in by the UK government to encourage investors to put money into early stage UK businesses.

The scheme is well established and to date has raised approx. £24BN in investment.

EIS is designed for smaller businesses that don’t necessarily have stable revenue yet.

EIS can allow your business to reach the next level of growth by:

Offering an alternative to taking on large amounts of debt from traditional high street lenders
Making your business an attractive proposition to potential investors by offering them significant tax reliefs.

It’s thought that up to two thirds of UK angel investors will only consider investments that are EIS approved.

EIS is designed for slightly more established businesses than its sister scheme (SEIS) which deals primarily with start-ups.

It is aimed at businesses who have been trading for between two and seven years and have up to 250 employees.

There are certain other criteria that the business must meet to be eligible for EIS.

This includes:

There are a number of excluded trades including banking, legal services and property development.