Ask Canopy: Should London’s First-Time Founders Use SEIS to Raise Their First Round?

About Ask Canopy

Every week, Canopy digs into the real conversations first-time founders are having online — on Reddit, Quora, and beyond — and picks one burning question to answer properly.

No fluff, no theory. Just hard-won insight from founders who have actually done it.

If you have a question of your own, we want to hear it. More on that at the end.

About the Author

Stewart Noakes is the founder of Canopy Community, an international startup network spanning London, Bristol, Lisbon, Porto, Boston, Bangalore, and Singapore.

With nine companies founded — four through to exit — Stewart has built incubators across three continents and runs monthly demo nights at City St George's, University of London.

His mission: use entrepreneurship as a tool for social mobility, and make the startup world genuinely accessible to every founder, regardless of background.

This Week's Question

"Should I use SEIS to raise my first round, and how does it actually work?"

Spotted on r/ukstartups — and it is one of the most searched, least clearly answered questions in the UK startup ecosystem.

What the Founders Who've Done It Actually Say

SEIS — the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme — is a UK government programme that gives investors up to 50% income tax relief on investments up to £200,000 per year, plus full capital gains tax exemption on exit.

For first-time founders, it can be a game-changer. But only if you understand the realities.

It Is a Prerequisite, Not an Option

Richard Williams, founder of Agora (a care workforce marketplace), put it bluntly:

"Without SEIS, funds and angels won't talk to you. The standard response is: come back when you've got SEIS."

Once SEIS advance assurance is in place, you've completed roughly half your early due diligence. HMRC has already verified your structure, your team, and your business basics. It transforms the investor conversation.

Do Not Try to Do It Yourself

Richard's team attempted the SEIS advance assurance application in-house to save around £1,000. It triggered an HMRC investigation that added months to their timeline.

His golden rule, learned the hard way:

"If they ask what you had for breakfast, say yes, I had breakfast. Do not tell them where and when."

Answer only what's asked. Nothing more.

Both Richard and Jeremy — co-founder of Pravi, an ML platform for nonprofits — recommend outsourcing to a specialist. Founder Catalyst costs around £1,500. SeedLegals is the other strong option. Jeremy's advance assurance came back in 25 hours. Richard's self-filed version took months.

Plan for Six to Eight Months, Minimum

Jeremy and his co-founder raised £250,000 SEIS from Jensen Ventures. Start to drawdown: six months.

They contacted 200–300 investors, held around ten first-round meetings, and iterated through 54 versions of their pitch deck.

The first deck, Jeremy says, was nowhere near good enough to show their best prospects. Save your A-list investors for your most refined pitch — not your first one.

Fundraising Will Consume You

Jeremy estimated fundraising took 60% of his mental bandwidth throughout the process.

His co-founder ran product and traction while he led fundraising. If you don't have that split, you will feel the cost in your product.

Plan for it explicitly before you start.

SEIS Is the Beginning, Not the End

The lifetime SEIS cap per company is £250,000. After that, EIS opens up — up to £3 million per year.

Think of SEIS as your credibility gateway. Get it done cleanly, and doors that were previously closed will open.

Got a Question for Canopy?

If you're a first-time founder with a question you'd like us to dig into for a future edition of Ask Canopy, we'd love to hear from you.

Send your question to [email protected]