Investments should meet these criteria:

• be in the form of a purchase of new ordinary share capital in the qualifying start-up and not replacement capital or debt instruments (such as convertible loans)
   
  
• no condition in the shares that would eliminate the investor's risk
  
  
• shares must be issued and acquired by the investor during the time of the start-up's approved status
  
  
• a loss will be recognised under this scheme provided the sale of the qualified shares is between the start of the second and end of the sixth year from the date of purchase of the shares
  
  
• each investment must be at least $1,000
  
  
• an investor can be an individual or a company. Individual includes the entrepreneur who founded the start-up, and relatives and employees who purchase shares from the start-up at market price (this excludes share allocations to employees and shares obtained by exercising employee stock options)