Why Seed Mentors?

At Seed Mentors we have a deep understanding of the needs of small businesses. We know from experience that to be successful a young company needs more than money. It is just as important to have access to the right advice and expertise, probably at the very time that you can’t afford it!

That is why we are called Seed Mentors. We offer the companies that we invest in a Mentoring service when and where it is needed, across Finance, IT, HR, Sales and Marketing, and much more.

In fact it is so important that we make accepting this service compulsory, for each of the companies that we invest in.

The second area of fundamental difference is that the companies that we invest in have to earn the right to be included in our portfolio. Not only do they have to submit a detailed business plan. They also have to present their business idea to an experienced panel of business experts, and justify their approach. We also conduct our own due diligence and look for a managing director that has a minimum of 5 years’ experience in the relevant industry. Hundreds of business ideas that are sent to us every year.

A Track Record of Success

Since the launch of Seed Mentors in 2013, we have successfully created portfolio company opportunities within 6 SEIS funds.

These have included:

• Portfolio companies invested through three generalist UK SEIS Funds, all now closed and invested.
• Client companies invested through the Dragon Seed Advantage SEIS Fund created to support start-up businesses in Wales. The pipeline for this Fund, which is now closed and fully invested, was run in partnership with xenos, part of Finance Wales.
• The Portillion Capital Shariah Compliant SEIS Fund. The UK’s first ever Shariah Compliant SEIS Fund, run in conjunction with Portillion Capital. This has had two closes.

Current open opportunities

Opportunities for companies we support include being commercially recommended for consideration, through the Seed Mentors EIS introductory pipeline, for investment by a generalist EIS Fund.

• These opportunities are considered on an evergreen basis, with closes from time to time by tranches.

• We are promoting an initiative in which five companies (''Take 5'') from the existing group of SEIS portfolio clients will have access to be considered for follow-on funding for growth.

Bespoke services for advisory firms

For financial advisory firms, Seed Mentors can also provide a white-labelled service giving you the ability to tell us what type of assets you would like to invest in and for us to search for suitable prospects.