Our approach

Par Equity is an award-winning venture capital firm, investing in innovative technology businesses with high growth potential. We focus on B2B businesses in the North of the UK that are leveraging innovative, proprietary technology across the following six themes, in which Par, our advisors, and our Investor Network have deep expertise. We have the capacity to lead deals from Seed to Series A. Find out more about the companies we look for here.

  • Enterprise Software

  • Health Care & Medical Practice

  • Energy & Resources

  • Food Security

  • Industrials & Space

  • Digital, Media, & Entertainment

To create a value-added investment model that benefits both investors and entrepreneurs, we have built a professional Investor Network of over 200 business angels. Our Investor Network provides unrivalled access to the right people at the right time, who enhance our deal flow, improve our due diligence, fine tune business models and guide entrepreneurs through to exit. Put simply, the intellectual capital within the Par network produces better outcomes.

Sitting alongside our Investor Network is a series of discretionary managed venture funds (principally our evergreen EIS Fund which we’ve been managing since 2012).  By wrapping a sophisticated angel investor network around the professionalism and rigour of a venture capital firm, we’ve created a powerful investment model, which is producing outsized returns for Par investors and has the potential further success stories.

As a testament of this approach, Par Equity is the proud winner of the Best EIS Investment Manager 2021 and the Angel Group of the Year 2021 awards presented by our respective national trade associations, EISA and the UKBAA.

Our Investment Team

ESG Considerations

Environment, Social and Governance ("ESG") considerations are an important part of our investment process, and we are continuously integrating this into our firm’s values, missions, and processes. ESG is increasingly discussed at Board and Investment Committee meetings, and it is an ongoing priority to embed these firmly within Par’s investment processes, corporate framework, and culture.

As part of this ongoing work, we have taken a leading role in the venture industry, helping to launch ESG_VC (a framework for ESG reporting in early-stage companies), and continuing this work as a Steering Committee member.  In addition, we are signatories of the Investing in Women Code and proud supporters of Diversity VC's Future VC program.

EIS reliefs for individual investors

Introduced in 1994, the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) is a long-standing venture capital scheme designed to help smaller, higher risk trading companies to raise finance by offering a range of tax reliefs to individual investors. More than 32,000 companies have received EIS qualifying investment since 1994, creating new jobs and providing productivity gains across the country. In recent years, around £2 billion is invested into EIS qualifying companies on an annual basis. Managing an EIS Fund and operating an extensive Investor Network, means that EIS relief has been an important factor across our venture capital activities since 2009.  We completed more than 250 EIS qualifying transactions.

In summary, there are 5 main tax benefits to investors based in the UK:

  1. Income tax relief at 30% of the investment amount
  2. No capital gains tax on gains made (if shares are held for more than 3 years)
  3. Full inheritance tax relief (after two years)
  4. Capital gains tax deferral relief - the charge can be rolled over into further qualifying investments and is extinguished on death
  5. Loss relief of up to 45% of the net investment amount (i.e., after income tax relief of 30%), representing total tax reliefs of up to 61.5% of the original investment if the underlying investment is a failure. Crucially, losses of individual investments are not off netted against gains elsewhere in the investor’s portfolio

If you’d like to understand more about EIS, please see the government’s guidance on "Tax relief for investors using venture capital schemes".

Risk Warning

Investments in unquoted shares carries an above-average level of risk compared with quoted shares. An investor may not get back the amount invested and could lose all of the capital invested. The value of an investment may go down as well as up, but in any event such value can only be realised on a sale of that investment. These investments are highly illiquid and as such, there may not be a readily available market to sell them, and no market value exists. Furthermore, past performance is not necessarily a guide to future performance, as there are many contributory factors that can influence the value of shares in early-stage companies.