EIS tax reliefs are only available after the money has been deployed into EIS qualifying companies.
The faster the EIS capital is deployed, the more quickly tax reliefs are available, and hence cash flow is improved from this investment.
It should be noted that Mercia EIS is deploying capital in the conventional, large venture capital based EIS fund, which optimises the investment returns. To be clear, we are not compromising the quality of investments for the sake of deploying EIS rapidly. There are some smaller EIS funds who have created contrived structures to deploy EIS immediately, but these do not provide the optimal returns for investors.
Of the leading EIS funds, Mercia EIS deploys the most rapidly, and hence the cash flow is more optimal. We are able to deploy quickly to do the scale of Mercia and due to recent restructuring of our investment team, so that our EIS is investing by default alongside other Mercia venture capital funds.