Angel investors and venture capital
SEIS and EIS rules, how angel and venture money differ, and where to raise or invest.
SEIS and EIS qualifying checker
Checks a company's filings against the SEIS and EIS conditions, and lists the ones public records cannot settle.
Start typing a company name and pick it from the list.
An indication for a conversation with an adviser. It is not advance assurance and it is not tax advice. Advance assurance comes from HMRC, on an application that describes the trade and the proposed share issue — neither of which is on the register.
Angel investors compared with venture capital
They invest at different stages, for different reasons, on different terms.
| Angel investors | Venture capital | |
|---|---|---|
| Whose money | Their own. One person deciding, often a former founder or operator in your sector. | Somebody else’s. A fund with its own investors, its own mandate and its own timetable. |
| Typical ticket | Around £22,000 for a group ticket; individual angels commonly £50k–£150k, and £25k–£250k across the range. | A fund needs to write cheques big enough to matter to its own returns, which usually means seed rounds upwards. |
| Stage | First outside money. Often before revenue, sometimes before a product. | Once something is working and the question is how fast it can be made to grow. |
| What decides it | You, mostly. Conviction about the founder, and whether they want to be involved in this. | Whether the business can plausibly return the whole fund on its own. Most good businesses cannot, and that is not a criticism of them. |
| Tax relief | Central. SEIS and EIS are why much angel money exists at all, and 50% or 30% off the downside changes the arithmetic entirely. | Not a factor. Funds are not personal taxpayers and price on ownership instead. |
| What you give up | Shares, and usually not control. Terms are often simple. | Shares, a board seat, preference on an exit, and a set of covenants about what you may do next. |
| Timeline | Weeks, if they like it. One person can just decide. | Months. Diligence, an investment committee, and a fund that has to explain the decision to its own investors. |
| The catch | Finding them. There is no register of angels and the good ones are not advertising. | Fit. A fund that cannot see a very large outcome will pass however good the business is. |
Ticket sizes: UK Business Angels Association, Angel Report 2025. Scheme totals for the same period: £1.575bn invested under EIS and £276m under SEIS, on HMRC statistics as summarised in that report — with the number of investors claiming EIS relief falling, so fewer people are deploying more selectively. Checked 30 August 2026.
The rules, as they stand
Company-side EIS limits were raised on 6 April 2026. SEIS was unchanged.
| Condition | SEIS | EIS |
|---|---|---|
| Income tax relief | 50% | 30% |
| Investor limit, per tax year | £200,000 | £1m, or £2m where over £1m goes to knowledge-intensive companies |
| Company raise limit | £250,000 lifetime | £10m a year, £24m lifetime across the venture capital schemes |
| Gross assets | £350,000 at the share issue | £30m before the issue, £35m immediately after |
| Employees | Fewer than 25 full-time equivalents | Fewer than 250, or 500 if knowledge-intensive |
| Age | Under 3 years trading | Within 7 years of first commercial sale, 10 if knowledge-intensive |
| Holding period | Three years, or the relief is withdrawn | |
| Capital gains | Tax-free growth after three years; 50% reinvestment relief on gains up to £100,000 a year | Tax-free growth after three years; deferral relief on reinvested gains |
HMRC scheme rules as summarised by The Carry, “SEIS and EIS limits and thresholds for 2026”; the 6 April 2026 company-side changes as reported by Farrer & Co and Saffery. Checked 30 August 2026. Rates and limits change — confirm against HMRC before you act.
Excluded activities
Neither scheme is open to every business. Property development, dealing in land, banking, money-lending and other financial activities, leasing, legal and accountancy services, farming and forestry, hotels, nursing homes, energy generation, shipbuilding, steel and coal are all excluded — and so is a company where an excluded activity is a substantial part of what it does, which HMRC reads as more than 20%.
The distinction that catches people out: financial activities are excluded, but advising on financial matters is not. An adviser can qualify where a lender cannot.
The checker above flags a company whose SIC code lands on that list. A SIC code is not the test — it is a prompt to look at what the business actually does.