Operate under our permissions, in your own name.
Your name on the door. Our permissions behind it.
1 APPOINTED REPRESENTATIVE
An Appointed Representative is a firm that carries out regulated activity under the permissions of an authorised firm, known as its principal. Sapphire acts as principal. You trade under your own name and your own brand.
The appointment is registered with the FCA, so your firm appears on the Financial Services Register as our Appointed Representative. We assess you before appointment, supervise you afterwards, and answer to the regulator for the regulated activity you carry out.
It suits firms that want to move quickly, and firms that want to build a track record before applying for authorisation of their own. Zero Carbon Capital and Sustainable Ventures both work with us this way.
“We feel confident that our regulatory and compliance needs are in good hands.”
Julia Groves, Sustainable Ventures
2 Investment Consultant
Not every arrangement needs an appointment. Some clients work alongside a Sapphire-managed fund as an investment consultant or company mentor, providing sourcing, research and analysis while the regulated decisions stay with us.
This is the lightest arrangement to put in place. There is no FCA notification and no appointment agreement, so it can be running in weeks rather than months.
It suits specialists who want to shape a fund's strategy without taking on regulatory obligations of their own. AI VentureFlows works this way, with Professor Andy Pardoe's team handling technical due diligence and deal sourcing, as well as mentoring the investee companies.
3 your own authorisation
Some clients use their time with us to build the track record, systems and governance that an FCA application requires.
We are not precious about it. Working under our permissions first gives you a live business and a documented history to point at when you apply, rather than a business plan and a promise.
Love Ventures obtained their own authorisation in 2024, as did EMV Capital. We count that as a success.
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“Sapphire has been the cornerstone of our investment operations." Mark Pearson, Fuel Ventures
property funds
Set up a property fund with Sapphire. Sapphire will collaborate with you in setting up the traditional "LP/GP" structure for a property fund. LPs are the limited partners who invest in the fund, and the GP is the General Partner.
In addition to this, Sapphire is authorised to manage & operate Exempt Property/ Exempt Property Unit Trust ("EPUT") structure.
An indirect property investment means that the investor subscribes to shares in a company that, in turn, invests in properties. Through property funds, investors, therefore, have the opportunity to invest relatively small amounts in large-volume properties by way of professional fund companies.
Zero Carbon Capital became our Appointed Representative in 2019 and has completed 25 investments across an EIS fund and a GP/LP structure. Sustainable Ventures joined in 2025 and launched a SEIS and an EIS fund simultaneously. We have appointed fourteen firms over the years and deliberately hold that number at four today. We would rather supervise a small number of firms properly than a long list loosely.
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