Our assessment process.

This is our own assessment process. It is not a regulated activity, it is not an audit, and it is not a substitute for the due diligence you carry out yourself or commission from your own advisers.

We describe it here so that you know exactly what has and has not been done before an opportunity reaches you. Where we could not verify something, we say so on the opportunity itself rather than leaving a silence.

Does this fit what we do, and is there any obvious reason it should not proceed? Most opportunities end here, and quickly. It is better for everyone that they do.

• Companies House record: incorporation, filing history, charges, officers.
• Confirmation that the entity presenting the opportunity is the entity that will receive the investment.
• Share capital and existing shareholder position.
• Any adverse public record.

Who is running this, what have they done before, and does their record support what they are proposing to do now? We check directorship histories, including previous insolvencies and disqualifications.

• Articles of association and any shareholders' agreement.
• Board minutes and authority to raise.
• Existing investor rights, including pre-emption and consent provisions.
• Material contracts and any encumbrance over assets.

Filed accounts where they exist, management accounts where they do not, and the relationship between the two. We look at cash position, burn rate, liabilities and whether the raise is sized correctly for what it is meant to achieve.

Where figures are unaudited, we say so.

We test the plan against the accounts and against the market. Assumptions are separated from facts, and forecasts are treated as forecasts — including on the opportunity page, where they are labelled as such.

For project-based opportunities: can this be delivered, at this cost, in this time, with these people? Costed independently where the scale justifies it.

• Is the market real, and is it the size claimed?
• Who else is in it, and why would a customer choose this instead?
• What would have to be true about the market for the plan to work?

• The legal structure of the investment and the instrument being offered.
• Where SEIS or EIS is claimed: whether the conditions are met, and what must continue to be true afterwards.
• Whether the opportunity can lawfully be communicated, to whom, and on what basis.
• Sanctions, anti-money-laundering and source-of-funds considerations.

We set out the risks specific to this opportunity — not a generic list. If a risk is material and we know about it, it appears on the opportunity page whether or not it helps the raise.

Every document that will be placed in the data room is checked for consistency with everything else. Contradictions between a pitch deck and a set of accounts are common, and they are always significant.

A recorded decision on whether the opportunity may be presented, to which categories of qualified investor, and with what warnings and conditions attached. A decision not to proceed is recorded in the same way.

This decision is reviewed if anything material changes.

No assessment process eliminates risk. We can tell you what we examined and what we found. We cannot tell you that an investment will succeed, and we cannot tell you whether it is right for you — that depends on your circumstances, and you may wish to take independent advice on it.