Venture firm brings in the 'family' to boost start-ups He said he expects the EIS fund to be "much bigger" than £10m in future. A trial of the scheme last year saw DFJ raise a "£1m a week for four weeks." About 85pc of entrepreneurs have never invested using an EIS fund before because funds had high fees and they couldn't get the right deals. This shows the demand is there if you can link entrepreneurs to quality investments. A similar scheme is being used by Octopus, another British venture capital firm. The idea is to bring together a pool of experienced entrepreneurs who will be more inclined to provide expert advice to a group of fast growing companies that they have also backed financially. DFJ has used the initiative to back "members only" luxury homeware retailer Achica, fashion website Lyst and email analysis company Datahug. Mr Marsh said such schemes could help EIS - which offers income and capital gains tax relief to investors in small businesses - reach its intended target following a series of relaxations of its qualifying criteria by George Osborne, the Chancellor, to make it more attractive to investors. Investment through EIS has been stationery despite the Government's best efforts, at around £700m a year. Not all of that has been reaching the right areas. But the changes introduced in recent years mean that EIS can be used in larger businesses and greater amounts invested. Mr Marsh said more venture capital firms should now use EIS to bring entrepreneurs" money and experience into play. It's difficult to build a big business with a small amount of money, which is why [in the past] EIS money has gone into tax [avoidance] schemes instead of the fast-growing businesses [it is designed] to stimulate. Now, through schemes like our friends and family network, private investors can get access to deals that used to be out of reach - with the added incentive of tax relief. He said he expects investment through EIS to grow to £1bn a year as investors adapt to the more generous regime.