How do you find SEIS/EIS companies to invest in?
By Georgie Brown · Last updated 2026-10-31
There is no official list of SEIS/EIS companies, so angels find them through six routes: crowdfunding platforms, syndicates, SEIS/EIS funds, angel networks, accelerators, and startup databases. The platforms and funds show you deals that already have a lead and a crowd. Discover Startups shows you the companies before that happens: a curated database of UK startups by sector, stage and SEIS/EIS status. Find the ones that interest you, check they hold Advance Assurance, and reach the founder first.
Key takeaways
- SEIS gives 50% income tax relief on up to £200,000 a year; EIS gives 30% on up to £1 million (£2 million if the company is knowledge-intensive). Both are free of capital gains tax if you hold the shares for three years.
- HMRC Advance Assurance is the signal to look for. In 2025-26, HMRC received 4,085 SEIS and 3,310 EIS applications, and has so far approved 76% and 72% of them.
- There is no central register. By the time a company is on a crowdfunding platform or in a fund, the terms are set and you are one of many. The off-market deals, where you can still lead or set terms, come from reaching founders directly.
- Discover Startups is the direct route: 776 startups in the directory, 513 of them UK-based and 389 at Pre-Launch or Early Revenue, filterable by sector, stage and SEIS/EIS status.
- Advance Assurance is an opinion, not a guarantee. Relief is only confirmed when the company files its compliance statement after the shares are issued, so check age, gross assets and trade before you invest.
- The market is moving earlier: SEIS raised a record £276 million across 2,430 companies in 2024-25, while EIS was flat at £1,575 million.
What are SEIS and EIS, and why do angels look for them?
The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) are HMRC schemes that give individual investors income tax relief for buying new shares in young, unlisted qualifying companies. They exist to pull private money into businesses that banks and most funds will not touch, and they are the reason a large share of UK angel investing happens at all. Since the schemes began they have channelled around £34 billion into more than 59,000 companies, according to the EIS Association.
The relief is generous enough to change the maths of a pre-seed investment. A £10,000 SEIS investment costs £5,000 after income tax relief, and if the company fails, loss relief at your marginal rate cuts the net loss further. If it succeeds, any gain is free of capital gains tax after three years.
| SEIS | EIS |
|---|
| Income tax relief | 50% | 30% |
| Investor annual limit | £200,000 | £1 million (£2 million in knowledge-intensive companies) |
| Company can raise | £250,000 lifetime | £10 million a year, £24 million lifetime (£20m / £40m if knowledge-intensive) |
| Company age at investment | Trading under 3 years | First commercial sale within 7 years (10 for knowledge-intensive) |
| Company gross assets before issue | £350,000 | £30 million |
| Company employees | Fewer than 25 | Fewer than 250 (500 if knowledge-intensive) |
| Minimum holding period | 3 years | 3 years |
| CGT on exit | Exempt after 3 years | Exempt after 3 years |
| Loss relief | Yes, against income or gains | Yes, against income or gains |
The EIS company limits doubled on 6 April 2026 following the Autumn Budget 2025; the SEIS limits were last raised in April 2023 (Deloitte, HMRC). The practical effect for angels is that SEIS is now firmly the pre-seed scheme, and most companies you find at pre-seed will be raising under SEIS first and EIS alongside it, in that order.
What does Advance Assurance actually tell you?
Advance Assurance (AA) is a letter from HMRC saying that, based on what the company has submitted, the proposed share issue is likely to qualify for SEIS or EIS. It is optional, it is free, and most angels will not invest without it. In 2025-26 HMRC received 4,085 SEIS and 3,310 EIS applications, up 24% and 4% on the year before (HMRC, May 2026).
What AA tells you:
- HMRC has seen the company's business plan, financial forecast, cap table and intended use of funds, and has not objected.
- The company has met the risk to capital condition on paper: the money is at real risk and is meant to fund the long-term growth of the business, not to generate a tax-sheltered return.
- The company is organised enough to have done the paperwork. Since 2018, HMRC has required a three-year business plan and the name of at least one intended investor before it will issue AA (SeedLegals).
What AA does not tell you:
- That your relief is guaranteed. HMRC makes its final decision when the company files a compliance statement (SEIS1 or EIS1) after the shares are issued. If the facts have changed, the relief can be refused or clawed back.
- That the company is still eligible today. AA does not expire, but a company can age out of SEIS, exceed the gross-assets limit, change its trade, or raise under EIS before its SEIS shares are issued, any of which can break the relief.
- That it is a good investment. HMRC assesses eligibility, not quality.
The practical rule: treat AA as the filter, not the decision. Ask to see the AA letter and the date on it, then run the checks in the vetting section below. Discover Startups shows verified AA status on each profile so you can filter before you ask.
Where do SEIS/EIS companies surface?
SEIS/EIS companies surface through six routes, and each gives you a different trade-off between control, cost and effort. Most active angels combine a fund or syndicate for diversification with one direct route for the deals they want to own outright.
| Route | Examples | Minimum per deal | What it costs you | You pick the company? | Best for |
|---|
| Equity crowdfunding | Republic Europe (formerly Seedrs), Crowdcube | £10 to £100 | Carry of 7.5% on gains, or a platform fee on exit | Yes | Small cheques, broad choice, SEIS/EIS flag on every campaign |
| Angel syndicates | Odin, Angel Investment Network, UKBAA member groups | £1,000 to £10,000 | Syndicate carry (typically 10 to 20%) | You follow a lead | Following experienced leads, pro-rata rights |
| SEIS/EIS funds | SyndicateRoom Access, SFC Capital, Jenson, 7percent | £5,000 to £25,000 per fund | Annual management fee plus performance fee | No | Diversification, hands-off, relief certificates handled for you |
| Angel networks | Cambridge Angels, Oxford Angels, Angels of the North, regional UKBAA networks | £5,000 to £25,000 | Membership fee, pitch-event attendance | Yes, from a curated flow | Local deal flow, co-investing with people you know |
| Accelerators and demo days | Y Combinator UK cohort, Techstars London, Entrepreneur First, Carbon13 | Varies | Time | Yes | Early sight of pre-seed companies before they raise |
| Startup databases | Discover Startups, Beauhurst, Crunchbase, Companies House | None | Free to subscription | Yes | Reaching founders directly, before a round has a lead or a platform listing |
Three notes on reading the table. Crowdfunding platforms show the widest flow, but you arrive after the terms are set and you are one of hundreds of investors with no information rights. Funds remove the sourcing problem entirely, but you give up the choice and 2 to 3% a year. Databases are the only route where you reach a founder directly and early, which is where the best SEIS deals, the ones that never get listed, come from. Of the databases, Beauhurst and Crunchbase are built for market research, are not SEIS-aware, and charge a subscription; Discover Startups is built for this specific job, with SEIS/EIS status on each profile.
SeedLegals tracks 32 active SEIS funds and 50 EIS funds if you want the full list of the fund route.
How do you check a company is actually eligible?
Six checks, most of them possible from Companies House and the AA letter before you ever speak to the founder. Do them in this order; the first three catch most problems.
- Ask for the Advance Assurance letter. Check the date, the scheme named (SEIS, EIS or both) and the amount applied for. An AA from two years ago on a company that has traded since is worth far less than a recent one.
- Check the company age at Companies House. SEIS requires the company to have been trading for under three years at the date of the share issue. EIS requires the first commercial sale to be within seven years (ten if knowledge-intensive). Look at the incorporation date and the first filed accounts.
- Check gross assets and headcount. SEIS: gross assets under £350,000 and fewer than 25 full-time-equivalent employees immediately before the issue. EIS: gross assets under £30 million and fewer than 250 employees. The last filed balance sheet is a proxy; ask for management accounts if the round is big.
- Check what else has been raised. A company that has already raised £250,000 under SEIS has used its lifetime allowance and can only offer EIS. A company that issues EIS shares before its SEIS shares are fully issued disqualifies the SEIS investors, so ask what order the round is closing in.
- Check the trade is a qualifying business activity. Excluded activities include property development, banking, insurance and other financial services, farming, hotels, nursing homes, legal and accountancy services, and energy generation. Most consumer product and software companies qualify; most asset-backed businesses do not. HMRC lists the exclusions in its venture capital schemes manual.
- Check you are not connected. You cannot claim EIS relief if you, or an associate, hold more than 30% of the shares or are a paid director. SEIS is more flexible: directors can invest, but the 30% cap still applies.
If all six hold, the remaining risk is that the company fails to file its compliance statement on time. Ask the founder who is doing it (SeedLegals, an accountant, themselves) and when. Your relief certificate (SEIS3 or EIS3) only arrives after that filing.
How do you find SEIS/EIS companies on Discover Startups?
Discover Startups is built to answer this exact question: how to find startups that interest you, and which of them are SEIS/EIS registered. It is a curated database of UK consumer and product startups. Every company on it is real and trading, checked by a person rather than scraped, and every profile shows the stage, the sector, and whether the company holds verified SEIS or EIS Advance Assurance. You swipe through the brands that match what you actually want to back, say SEIS-eligible drinks brands at Early Revenue, save the ones you like, and introduce yourself to the founder by email. No platform fee, no carry, no waiting for a round to open: you reach the company before the platforms and funds do, and you deal on your own terms.
The numbers behind that, as of October 2026: the Discover Startups directory holds 776 approved startups, 513 of them UK-based. 389 are at Pre-Launch or Early Revenue, the stages SEIS was designed for. Of the companies with a recorded founding year, 62% were founded in 2020 or later and 22% in 2024 or later, inside the three-year SEIS trading window. Founders mark their SEIS/EIS status on their profile and upload their HMRC Advance Assurance letter for verification; searchers only see the SEIS/EIS badge once our team has checked the letter.
This matters most in consumer brands, which is where Discover Startups is strongest and where the rest of the market is weakest. HMRC's own data shows 42% of SEIS money in 2024-25 went to Information and Communication, which is where the syndicates and software funds look. Consumer product companies, the Wholesale and Retail and Manufacturing sectors in HMRC's classification, took around a quarter of SEIS investment and have far fewer organised investors looking for them. Discover Startups is the SEIS-aware view of that quarter: the brands other sourcing routes skip, with the founder one introduction away.
Looking for SEIS/EIS deals in consumer brands? Apply for searcher access to swipe curated, early-stage UK brands and connect with founders before the round fills. Start here
Frequently asked questions
Is there an official list of SEIS/EIS companies?
No. HMRC does not publish the names of companies that hold Advance Assurance or that are raising funds under the schemes. It publishes aggregate statistics once a year. The only way to find companies is through the routes above, or by asking founders directly.
Can I invest in SEIS/EIS companies through my pension or ISA?
No. SEIS and EIS relief is only available to individuals investing in their own name and paying UK income tax. Shares held in a SIPP or ISA do not qualify, and neither do investments made through a company.
How much should I invest per company?
That depends on your circumstances and this guide cannot advise you. What the data shows is that most SEIS investors claiming relief put in £10,000 or less per year across all their SEIS investments, and 56% of claims in 2024-25 were for that amount or under. Most funds and syndicates suggest spreading a given year's allocation across at least ten companies.
What happens if the company fails?
An investor can claim loss relief on the amount invested net of the income tax relief you received, set against either income tax or capital gains tax. On a £10,000 SEIS investment, a 45% taxpayer who lost everything would recover £5,000 in income tax relief plus £2,250 in loss relief, for a net loss of £2,750.
Does Advance Assurance expire?
There is no formal expiry date, but HMRC assesses eligibility at the date of the share issue, not the date of the AA letter. A company that has traded for more than three years since incorporation, or whose circumstances have changed materially, may no longer qualify even with an old AA in hand.
Do SEIS/EIS companies have to be UK companies?
The company must have a UK permanent establishment, but it does not have to be incorporated in the UK. In practice almost all qualifying companies are UK limited companies, because that is what HMRC and investors expect to see.
This guide explains how to find companies, not whether to invest. It is not financial advice.
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