For founders

Everything that bears on raising

What qualifies a company, what the paperwork chain is, what a round does to ownership, and how a raise actually runs.

These are the guides that bear on raising. Anything that applies to both sides of a round appears here and on the investor page too.

Two separate objects. Above, a stack of sixteen rules standing for the statutory list of excluded activities, with the two a given trade touches marked in the margin. Below and apart from it, a single bar standing for the whole of that trade, with the excluded share filling the left of it and stopping short of a line drawn at twenty per cent — the proportion HMRC says it will normally accept as not substantial. The test is measured on the trade, not on how many of the sixteen categories are touched, which is why the two are drawn as separate things.

Reference

Company qualification

Excluded activities: is what your company does an excluded trade?

7 min

Published

3 Aug 2026

C02

Two separate objects. Above, a stack of sixteen rules standing for the statutory list of excluded activities, with the two a given trade touches marked in the margin. Below and apart from it, a single bar standing for the whole of that trade, with the excluded share filling the left of it and stopping short of a line drawn at twenty per cent — the proportion HMRC says it will normally accept as not substantial. The test is measured on the trade, not on how many of the sixteen categories are touched, which is why the two are drawn as separate things.

Reference

Company qualification

Excluded activities: is what your company does an excluded trade?

17 min read

Published

Checked 28 Jul 2026

C02

Two separate objects. Above, a stack of sixteen rules standing for the statutory list of excluded activities, with the two a given trade touches marked in the margin. Below and apart from it, a single bar standing for the whole of that trade, with the excluded share filling the left of it and stopping short of a line drawn at twenty per cent — the proportion HMRC says it will normally accept as not substantial. The test is measured on the trade, not on how many of the sixteen categories are touched, which is why the two are drawn as separate things.

Reference

Company qualification

Excluded activities: is what your company does an excluded trade?

17 min read

Published

Checked 28 Jul 2026

C02

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