A total of £1.81billion of funds was raised under the Enterprise Investment Scheme by 3,265 companies 2014-15, new figures showed this morning.

HMRC statistics showed that this has risen from 2013-14, when 2,840 companies raised £1,591 million of funds.

Former Financial Planner Mark Brownridge, who left Mazars Financial Planning in August to become director general of the Enterprise Investment Scheme Association, welcomed the news.

He said: “The latest EIS and SEIS fundraising data from HMRC shows money flowing into the schemes continues to rise and break new records.

“More than £1.8bn was invested in EIS in 2014-15 and £175m in SEIS, both exceeding previous years and maintaining the upward trajectory in fundraising that has been a trend of the past few years.”

Since the Enterprise Investment Scheme was launched in 1993-94, 24,620 individual companies have received investment through the scheme and almost £14.2 billion of funds have been raised.

Mr Brownridge called this a “fantastic figure that speaks of the success of the scheme in helping UK businesses to grow and succeed, while providing UK taxpayers with thousands of attractive tax-efficient investment opportunities”.

He said: “It is win-win for both and the wider economy too.”

Data for 2014-15 also showed that the 1,660 companies raising funds for the first time under the scheme raised a total of £1,022 million compared with 1,405 first time companies raising £897 million in 2013-14.

In 2014-15, companies from the Business Services sector accounted for over £600 million of investment (one third of all EIS investment).

Mr Brownridge said: “The number of companies seeking EIS funding for the first time has been growing year-on-year, reaching 1,660 in 2014-15, representing more than half of the total raised. This shows that EIS is becoming part of the equity funding mix for more and more companies as they look to develop and grow, a trend that is also seen in Seed EIS.”

More than £600m, one third, of EIS investment in 2014-15 went to companies in the business services sector.

Mr Brownridge said the tech sector continued to have higher levels of funding, with more than a third of Seed EIS investment going to tech companies in 2014-15. He said London has been “fast-becoming a technology hub that is producing some really exciting businesses with very bright futures.”