Onside Issue 1 - Spring/Summer 2014 - 20

ONSIDE / TEAM PROFILE

Acceleris deal will build £25m funding pot
Seneca Group has formally acquired investment business Acceleris in a deal to target
investment into businesses using the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS)

B

etween them Acceleris and
Seneca have raised a total of £16m
into EIS funds and successfully
invested in 30 companies, principally
in the North of England, creating over
500 jobs.
The deal will result in a combined
firepower of over 30 investment
professionals with experience of
structuring deals and backing
entrepreneurs.
Seneca's Ian Currie said: "We are
currently seeing more and more good
quality smaller UK companies with
excellent growth prospects who have
not been able to secure funding from
traditional sources. As a result we
believe this is an excellent time to
invest in Britain's businesses and the
combination of our EIS Portfolio
Service with the experience of the
Acceleris team provides access to these
opportunities. This deal is another
example of Seneca's approach:
mobilising hard-earned capital to
back Britain's entrepreneurs."
Norman Molyneux, chief executive
of Acceleris has joined the board of
Seneca Partners.
He said: "This deal increases the
range of skills we have as a team. I
have known Ian Currie for 14 years
and have always enjoyed a close
working relationship with him.
"By formally coming together in the
Seneca Group we can accelerate our
plans to invest and we can expand the
range of investment we can do. We
are aiming to raise and invest at least
£25m under EIS over the next year."

Acceleris invests in businesses on
behalf of investors - typically High
Net Worth individuals and takes an
active management in the companies,
offering reassurance to investors and
guidance to management teams.
During 2013, Acceleris advised on
transactions totalling approximately
£9m of which £8m was raised under
EIS and SEIS, a record fundraising
year for the company. The funds were
deployed into seven companies from
early-stage, through development to
acquisition. These companies are
operating in the biotech, waste
recycling equipment, cloud computing,
medical devices and the food sectors.
The Acceleris track record includes:
Investment into Manchester-based
internet business Metronet, which
delivered a 9.5 times return for
investors when the business sold to
a private equity buyer.
Acceleris has also invested £2.3m
into RedX Pharma, a drug development
company based on a patented redox
switch platform. The business model
develops improved versions of existing
blockbuster drugs and licenses them
prior to clinical trial stage.

Pictured above: Richard Manley, David Youngman, Norman Molyneux, Simon Thorn.
Acceleris, 9th Floor Lowry House, 17 Marble Street, Manchester, M2 3AW
0161 850 0156 | www.acceleris.com

Norman Molyneux is active in the
UK EIS Association, the leading trade
body for investors.
"We approach investments with
the same level of due diligence and
reporting that an investor would expect
from a quoted company. We de-risk
investment for private individuals.
They can be sure that the business is
managed and governed properly,"
he said.
The merged business will expand in
to new offices, which enhances Seneca's
presence in Manchester city centre,
further complementing its other UK
heartland locations.
Simon Thorn added: "It's important
not to lose the reliefs and to make sure
deals using EIS are completed efficiently
and correctly, ensuring that the company
and the investor are eligible for the
correct reliefs. In 12 years of doing this
we've never got one wrong."

Norman Molyneux:
We approach
investments with the
same level of due
diligence and reporting
that an investor would
expect from a quoted
company.
http://www.acceleris.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Onside Issue 1 - Spring/Summer 2014
