Practice 02
Capital
For anyone bringing money in or putting it to work: a raise, a grant, a bid.
In short
HAM Agency is a capital practice. It builds the evidence behind a raise, a grant or a bid: the data room, the model, the investor story, the funding case. Every figure is reconciled to source and every claim checked before anyone outside reads it. HAM does not raise money or advise on investments.
Who it's for
Owners and family offices deciding where capital goes. Founders raising for the first time, and founders who have raised once and do not want to do it that way again. Charities, CICs, councils and institutions going after grants and public contracts.
The problems we fix
- The data room is a folder of PDFs. No index, no order, and gaps an investor spots in minutes.
- The numbers do not reconcile. The deck says one thing and the accounts say another, and the reader stops believing both.
- Claims that will not survive diligence. A trade mark described as registered when it is still pending.
- A structure that does not fit the rules it depends on, found after investors have seen it rather than before.
- Non-dilutive money never considered. Grants and public contracts that fit the business, left on the table because nobody had time to look.
- Bids written to the wrong thing. Answering the question asked rather than the criteria scored.
What we build
- The investor data room: a numbered spine from the reading guide to the question tracker, with every document in its place.
- The financial model, reconciled to source, with the assumptions visible and the sensitivity shown.
- The investor story and the experience an investor has from first call to close.
- The red team: the pack read as a hostile buy-side reader before it leaves the building.
- The grant engine: the funders that actually fit, the calendar, the evidence base and the reusable answers.
- Bids and tenders written to the published criteria, with the compliance checked line by line.
How it runs
A scoping call, then a written scope with numbered deliverables, exclusions, two rounds of amends and a fixed price. Work starts when both sides have signed it.
Every figure is graded and sourced before it goes in front of anyone. Where a number cannot be evidenced, it comes out, and we tell you what would put it back.
We do not promote investments, arrange them or advise on them. Where a question is regulated, it goes to someone who is authorised, and we say so at the time.
Questions
What goes in an investor data room?
Company and legal documents, the accounts and the model, the cap table, intellectual property, commercial contracts, the team and the investor story, indexed so an investor can find anything fast. The index matters as much as the contents.
Do you raise the money for us?
No. We build the data room, the model, the story and the investor experience, and we check every figure and claim. You raise. We make sure nothing in the pack slows you down. We are not authorised to advise on or arrange investments and we do not.
Do you give tax or legal advice on SEIS and EIS?
No. We prepare the evidence and check it against the published scheme rules. Your accountant and your solicitor confirm the tax and legal position, and we flag every point that needs one of them.
What is the difference between bid writing and grant writing?
A bid competes for a contract to deliver something a buyer has specified, and is scored mechanically against published criteria. A grant asks a funder to back an outcome they care about, and is judged on fit and credibility. The research, the evidence and the writing are different jobs.
Why put grants and equity in the same practice?
Because they answer the same question, which is where the next money comes from. Non-dilutive money is often the better answer and it rarely gets considered, because the people who write bids and the people who build data rooms are usually different suppliers.
What do you red-team?
The pack, before anyone outside sees it. We read it the way a hostile buy-side reader would: the numbers against source, the claims against evidence, the structure against the rules it depends on, and the gaps an experienced investor finds in the first ten minutes.