Investment Readiness: What to Prepare Before You Approach Investors
What investors and lenders ask to see, what each document costs, and how SEIS and EIS advance assurance fits in.
Business plans from £800. Pitch deck reviews from £250 (approx. US$325). Fixed fees agreed in writing.
Being investment ready means having a pitch deck, a financial model, a business plan, a one-page summary and an organised data room ready before the first conversation. Avvale prepares the deck, model, plan and summary at fixed fees agreed in writing; the data room checklist below is free to use. None of these services includes contacting investors for you, and none of their fees depends on the money you raise.
Last updated: 10 November 2026. Reviewed by Muhammad Tayyab Shabbir.
What investors and lenders ask to see
Investors ask how large the business can become; lenders ask whether the loan will be repaid. Both expect the numbers to agree in every document.
The ask and the use of funds
How much you are raising, what it pays for and the runway it buys.
Evidence of demand
Revenue, pilots, letters of intent or usage data.
A model that reconciles
Profit and loss, cash flow and balance sheet that tie together, with testable assumptions.
A market they can check
A market size built from named customers and prices.
The team and the milestones
Why this team can deliver, and what the money achieves.
For lenders: affordability
A cash flow forecast showing the repayments are affordable. GOV.UK says you will need a business plan to secure investment or a bank loan.
Government-backed Start Up Loans run from £500 to £25,000 and are unsecured personal loans. See our business plans for UK bank loans.
The materials Avvale prepares, and what they cost
All fees are fixed and match our pricing page.
| Material | What it does | Avvale fee |
|---|---|---|
| Pitch deck | The first document many investors open. Deck Review gives feedback on your current deck; the other three tiers build a custom 15 to 20 slide deck. | Deck Review £250 (approx. US$325) Pitch Deck US$1,950 (approx. £1,550) Raise-Ready US$2,600 (approx. £2,050) Full Investor Set US$3,250 (approx. £2,575) |
| Financial model | The numbers behind the deck and the plan, built in Excel so an investor can test the assumptions. | Standalone model: quoted on request Five-year forecast included in the Standard business plan, £1,500 (approx. $1,800 USD) Three-year forecast included in Raise-Ready |
| Business plan | The full case: market, operations, team, risks and financials. Lenders expect one, and HMRC asks for one with an SEIS or EIS advance assurance application. | Essential £800 (approx. $1,000 USD) Standard £1,500 (approx. $1,800 USD) Premium £2,800 (approx. $3,500 USD) US clients: priced in USD |
| One-page summary | The summary you attach to a first email. | Included in Raise-Ready, US$2,600 (approx. £2,050), and in the Full Investor Set |
| Data room checklist | The documents investors request in due diligence. | Free checklist below |
Startup fundraising checklist: your data room
- Current pitch deck and one-page summary
- Financial model, with its assumptions
- Business plan
- Latest or management accounts
- Articles of association and any shareholder agreements
- Register of members and a cap table
- Key customer, supplier and employment contracts
- Intellectual property ownership and any assignments
- SEIS or EIS advance assurance, if you have it
SEIS and EIS advance assurance: the basics
The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) offer tax reliefs to individual investors who buy new shares in your company. Advance assurance means asking HMRC whether it agrees a proposed investment would meet the scheme conditions, so you can show potential investors that it may qualify. It does not tell you whether an investor would meet the conditions. If you are raising angel investment in the UK, expect investors to ask whether their shares could qualify.
| Condition | SEIS | EIS (most companies) |
|---|---|---|
| Most you can raise | £250,000, including any other de minimis state aid received in the 3 years up to and including the date of the investment | £10 million in any 12 month period and £24 million in the company's lifetime, in total from EIS, SEIS, VCTs and some other sources |
| Gross assets | Not over £350,000 when the shares are issued | Not more than £30 million before the shares are issued and £35 million immediately afterwards |
| Employees | Fewer than 25 full-time equivalent | Fewer than 250 full-time equivalent |
| Age of the business | An existing qualifying trade must not have been carried out for more than 3 years | Investment within 7 years of the first commercial sale, with some exceptions |
Under both schemes, investors' tax reliefs are withheld or withdrawn if the company does not follow the rules for at least 3 years after the investment. Knowledge-intensive companies have different rules, and some Northern Ireland companies (specified companies) have lower EIS limits.
What HMRC asks for in an advance assurance application
Among other things: how much you plan to raise, the business plan and financial forecasts, the latest accounts if available, the memorandum and articles of association, the register of members, and the latest draft of any documents you use to explain the proposal to potential investors. A company new to the schemes must give details of its potential investors. Avvale writes the plan, forecasts and investor documents; the investor details and the application come from you.
Our best fundraising guides, by stage
Fourteen guides from the Avvale library, in the order founders usually need them.
Plan the round
Pre-seed and angel rounds
Building the materials
Venture capital and Series A
We prepare the materials. You approach the investors.
You decide who to approach, and every conversation with an investor is yours. None of the services on this page includes contacting investors or putting you in touch with them, and none of these fees depends on whether you raise or how much. No document can promise funding: investors and lenders make their own decisions.
Muhammad Tayyab Shabbir, founder of Avvale Ltd, writes and reviews the work. He holds an MSci in Theoretical Physics from UCL. Avvale has worked with 500+ founders across 30+ countries and written 1,000+ plans, and its clients have raised $500M+.
Investment readiness, FAQs
Get your materials ready before the first meeting
Book a free 30-minute consultation: we will say what is missing and quote one fixed fee.
Email: info@avvale.co.uk · Pitch deck services · Business plan services