This month we were delighted to be invited to feature in the AngelNews VCT & EIS June Newsletter ‘In the Spotlight’.
The article gives a fresh insight into Jenson Funding Partners, our latest deals, the team and our open SEIS & EIS Fund. To sign up for the AngelNews newsletter click here, this is a great way of keeping up to date with all the latest VCT & EIS news and industry updates.
Our ‘In the Spotlight’ feature:
VCT/EIS/SEIS?
Jenson Funding Partners manages a combined SEIS & EIS Fund.
Assets / Funds Under Management
Since 2012 we have invested over £12 million in 80 plus companies through our SEIS and EIS Funds.
Sector focus
The Fund aims to target exciting new innovative and disruptive technologies. These are nurtured alongside existing investment opportunities that require follow-on investment to fully exploit commercialisation of a proven business model.
By investing in a diverse portfolio of Investee Companies with a focus on a wide range of sectors and geographical locations, the Fund will reduce its exposure to any particular sector or Investee Company with no more than 25% of any Investor’s Contribution being invested into a single Investee Company (unless otherwise agreed with the Investor).
About the company – background / history and information about the company
In 2001 Jenson Solutions was formed to provide companies with financial and operational support to help them grow and develop. With over 25 partners throughout the UK providing services to support companies start-up, raise funding, grow organically and by acquisition; restructure if required; and ultimately prepare for exit. Given the wealth of experience that we had built up to support start-ups develop and grow it was a natura progression to move into Seed EIS Funding. When Seed EIS was introduced by law in 2012 Jenson Funding Partners LLP was founded and launched the first Jenson Seed EIS Fund. This fund closed over-subscribed at over £5m and invested into 35 entrepreneurial UK businesses which had typically launched their product or service and were typically close to or post revenue. Since then our subsequent Funds have raised a further £7m of SEIS & EIS investment and invested into a further 48 companies. The Jenson SEIS & EIS Fund 2017/18 Tranche is open for investment, more information can be found below.
What sets us apart from other SEIS providers?
Over the past 5 years various funds have been available providing SEIS investment, however, many of these Funds are no longer offering sole investment in SEIS. Here at Jenson we believe that supporting start-ups from inception, helping them grow and achieve their goals with the ability to offer follow-on funding via our EIS Fund and assisting with subsequent funding rounds is imperative to their success. We have the experience and expertise to continue investing in successful start-ups and seeing continued growth in these companies.
Once an Investment has been made, Jenson provides Investee Companies with a range of business support services including general management and strategic advice, financial modelling and, where applicable, the provision of a part-time experienced finance director. The lack of expert advice is a key factor in the failure of many start-ups; while many entrepreneurs are highly creative and driven individuals, many have limited experience of business and finance. As such Jensons support during the Investee Companies formative years is likely to reduce the risk of Investee Companies not performing to levels predicted by their business plans or failing due to factors that would have otherwise been avoidable with expert advice.
The Team
Paul Jenkinson, Chairman
Paul Jenkinson is the Chairman of Jenson Solutions. Qualifying as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte, he then moved into corporate finance, raising funds for early stage and high growth companies working on buy-outs, mergers and acquisitions and corporate disposals for private and public companies. In 1999 Paul became Finance Director of a software company and subsequently floated it on OFEX (now PLUS). In 2001 Paul set-up Jenson Solutions to provide interim finance services. Paul led the team at Jenson Solutions to establish and grow the Jenson SEIS & EIS Fund in a strategic partnership with Foresight Group LLP. As strategic advisors to these funds, Jenson Solutions and Jenson Funding Partners are able to provide the investee companies with the level of financial and operational support normally only available to much larger businesses.
Sarah Barber, CEO
After qualifying with Deloitte as a Chartered Accountant, Sarah spent two years working as an audit manager before moving into Reorganisation Services. Whilst there Sarah worked on a variety of projects, including turnarounds, cashflow management, financial reviews and receiverships. Subsequently, Sarah moved into the interim market, providing services to a wide variety of clients gaining a broad experience in all aspects of accounting and financial management.
Sarah has direct experience with interim Finance Director roles, financial modelling, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) conversions, Due Diligence, share option valuations, planning and complex analysis. Over the past four years Sarah has been instrumental in the growth of Jenson Funding Partners, leading the team in fund raising, deployment and managing the portfolio of investee companies utilising her experience and knowledge gained as an FD.
Matt Ellams, Portfolio Director
Matt started his career at 3i, predominately working in the Venture Capital team. In 2009 he was part of a three person team that successfully led, managed and executed the sale of the Venture portfolio in a secondary transaction.
From 3i he moved to Omega Funds where he worked on a variety of primary and secondary transactions across Europe through to the end of 2013. Matt then became an independent consultant working on a number of fund raising and operational projects before joining Jenson Solutions in September 2014. Whilst at Jenson Matt has assisted a number of investee companies in follow-on funding rounds raised through Institutional Investors, HNW’s and Angel Groups.
Jeffrey Faustin, Investment Manager
Jeffrey started off his career as an engineering design consultant and has worked as a project manager and a technical director on projects worldwide. After gaining an MBA from London Business School in 2012 he moved across to Jenson Solutions in March 2013 shortly after the first fund was launched.
In his four years at Jenson Solutions, Jeffrey has been involved with sourcing dealflow and managing deployment of new opportunities along with assisting in with fundraising and marketing efforts. Jeffrey currently manages the SEIS arm of the fund.
Combined years of investment experience
The partners of Jenson Solutions have 250 years of combined investment experience across all sectors and business stages.
Current open offers
Combined Jenson SEIS & EIS Fund 2017/18 Tranche.
Target Size: £5 million
Minimum Raise: £1 million
Minimum Investment Amount: £10,000 (and thereafter multiples of £1,000)
Opening and Closing Dates: The 2017/2018 tranche opened on 6th April 2017 with rolling closes thereafter at the discretion of the Fund Manager.
A deal which epitomises your investment approach / strategy
Our strategy is investing in entrepreneurial early stage companies whilst providing support to the management team to enable the company to grow. The aim of our EIS Fund is to bridge the investment funding gap between our investee companies and traditional EIS & VCT Funds as most SEIS companies are still too early stage to receive this follow-on funding. Jenson’s ongoing monitoring of our SEIS companies ensures that our EIS investment are made in trusted companies that we already have a strong working relationship with.
In 2013 our first Seed EIS Fund invested in a company called Voneus. Since then we have worked closely with Voneus, a UK broadband provider, who make super-fast broadband available to customers in UK rural and metro communities, using innovative solutions where alternative services may not be available. To support their growth strategy we have recently announced that Voneus has secured a £4.8M Growth Capital loan from BOOST&Co alongside a £500k equity funding round raised by Jenson Funding Partners. We are delighted that we have been able to assist Voneus with their growth from a start-up to an established company and aim to continue this support through to the next level.
Three words which sum up the company’s ethos
Innovative, Expert, Supportive
Ins and Outs
In our most recent deal Voneus has secured a £4.8m Growth Capital loan from BOOST&Co alongside a £500k equity funding round raised by Jenson Funding Partners.
Bookitbee, the UK-based self-service ticketing system, raised a 2nd round of investment. As well as the Bookitbee brand, they are now offering the option of full-service ticketing: end-to-end support and consultancy alongside their industry leading ticketing platform.
Warwick Analytics, analyses large amounts of data on a software system and uses algorithms to determine relationships between variables in the data provided to the system, raised follow on funding.
Whispering Gibbon, a technology company that enables virtual content to be merchandised as physical items through the power of 3D printing, raised a 2nd round of investment. This has enabled them to develop a unique platform that will bring user generated merchandise to the gaming market.
