New fund launched to help fledgling businesses

Jonathan Gain

Stellar Asset Management, the London-based inheritance tax mitigation and estate planning specialist, has partnered with a Liverpool firm to launch the Stellar Nova EIS (Enterprise Investment Scheme) Fund.

Nova is a venture builder based in Liverpool backed by investors including former Tesco chief executive Sir Terry Leahy.

The EIS option offers a unique investment approach, which the Stellar team believes will provide strong returns to investors.

As well as offering attractive EIS tax breaks, the Stellar Nova EIS Fund, which is worth £7m in the current tax year, aims to provide exposure to a different type of investment compared to many other EIS funds.

Nova is a venture builder and specialises in building early stage, knowledge intensive, EIS and SEIS eligible technology businesses. Nova does this with a unique empathy toward those sitting on both sides of the table, both investors and business founders.

As opposed to many investment houses, Nova has an operating model that is proven to improve the performance of early stage ventures. It has an enviable track record of both investing in and also co-founding successful early stage businesses with entrepreneurial founders for more than 10 years.

Jonathan Gain, chief investment officer and CEO of Stellar, said: “I am delighted to announce that we have now added the Stellar Nova EIS Fund to our offering. With Stellar’s depth of experience in the estate planning space and our range of business relief services, it was a logical step to expand our services to include an EIS offering.

“Stellar chose to partner with Nova to provide an EIS option with a unique investment strategy and approach which we believe will provide strong returns to investors. We recognised that financial advisers would find this fund a valuable option for their investor clients.”

He added: “We selected Nova because it fits the values that we have of collaborating with the best people in the marketplace. We are delighted to be working with Andy Davidson and the Nova team to bring this opportunity to a wider market.”

Alistair Marsden

Alistair Marsden, chief marketing officer at Nova, said: “This partnership marks an exciting phase in the growth of Nova and its increased support to regional founders across the UK. Our aim is to start more businesses throughout the UK every year, supporting more founders to realise their ambition.

“By partnering with Stellar Asset Management, we are now able to confidently provide our growing base of founders with a further source of equity finance to help them grow both regionally and internationally.”

He said: “We chose to partner with Stellar Asset Management not only because they are considered industry leaders, but also due to our aligned values around UK business and seeing it succeed.”

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