Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
MarketFinance, the fintech business lender, is offering grants of £5,000 to support small businesses.
Businesses have until December 31 to apply for grants through the MarketFinance Business Booster Fund.
Three businesses will be selected and announced on January 6.
Timings of subsequent rounds will be confirmed in 2021.
>See also: Treasury to discuss COVID-19 grant for company directors
Any business in any sector can apply, so long as it has been trading for at least two years and is showing positive growth. It is not necessary to be an existing customer of MarketFinance to be eligible for the grant.
MarketFinance, which has offices in London and Manchester, is especially keen to support entrepreneurs who value diversity, inclusion and giving back.
Since 2011, MarketFinance has advanced over £3bn to companies across a range of sizes and sectors, providing working capital and finance for everything from paying staff and suppliers to launching new products or services and accelerating growth.
MarketFinance is backed by Barclays, Santander InnoVentures, European venture capital fund Northzone (whose investments include Klarna, iZettle and Trustpilot) and private equity group MCI Capital (also invested in iZettle, Azimo and Gett).
>See also: Liverpool launches £9.5m grant fund for ‘excluded’ self-employed
Anil Stocker, CEO of
Tag Archive for Financing
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Which type of bridge financing is right for your business?
by Partner Content • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Partner Content on Small Business
The idea that bridge financing can only be used to purchase or renovate property is a common misconception. In fact, businesses can utilise bridging loans for a wide variety of purposes.
Bridge finance can prove useful when your company is in need of a speedy cash injection. It can be used to help you meet finance obligations in the short term and provide a vital cash flow boost while you wait for longer-term funding to become available.
As with any business loan, you’ll have to meet the lender’s eligibility criteria. You’ll also be asked for your business plan and exit strategy when you apply for bridging finance.
>See also: Exploring finance: How appropriate debt choices can fuel ambitions
Let’s take a look at the different types of bridging finance available today:
Closed bridge loan
A closed bridge loan has a fixed repayment date, which is usually a few months after you receive the finance. As the lender has a higher level of certainty in terms of when the loan will be repaid, closed bridge loans tend to be more accessible.
Open bridge loan
Open bridge loans, on the other hand, have no fixed repayment date. This can make them more suitable
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Starting a business with no money. How to do it?
by Iván Vázquez Islas • • 0 Comments
How to start a business when you don’t have capital. Know the financing options you can get.
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BGF pitches £15bn growth fund for struggling businesses post-coronavirus
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Business Growth Fund is proposing a £15bn growth fund to help businesses struggling under the weight of coronavirus emergency loan debt.
Stephen Welton, chief executive of Business Growth Fund, is talking to investors, the Government and his banking shareholders about the new fund. BGF’s shareholders include Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and RBS.
Welton told the Financial Times that the UK faces a more devastating economic crash than the Great Recession of 2008, warning of “a totally unsustainable debt mountain” following the Government’s emergency coronavirus lending schemes.
Like others, Welton believes that many businesses will be crushed by this debt mountain, forcing them into bankruptcy and making a lot of people redundant.
Target viable businesses
The BGF fund would specifically target viable businesses that have borrowed money from the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) but cannot repay it, because of the complete absence of customers.
Like the Future Fund, any BGF investment would have to be matched by private investors, which could include pension funds. Welton said that he had been talking to a couple of institutions about them coming on board. It has long been an ambition of his to have pension funds diversify into supporting fast-growth British
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Microbusiness £50,000 Bounce Back Loans – how they work
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
The government has launched its microbusiness Bounce Back Loans scheme with a higher than expected £50,000 limit and a 100 per cent guarantee.
Businesses will be able to borrow between £2,000 and £50,000 and access the cash within days
Loans will be interest free for the first 12 months, and businesses can apply online through a short and simple form
The microbusiness Bounce Back Loans scheme is capped at 25 per cent of turnover and promises a streamlined application process.
Treasury says that the new microbusiness loan scheme will open next Monday, May 4 and will deliver cash to successful applicants within 24 hours.
Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, said: “Our smallest businesses are the backbone of our economy and play a vital role in their communities. This new rapid loan scheme will help ensure they get the finance they need quickly to help survive this crisis.”
Mike Cherry, national chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “To date, the existing interruption loan scheme has not been working for the small firms that make-up 99% of our business community.
“The decision by the chancellor to listen to our recommendation for a 100 per cent guarantee on smaller loans, alongside the
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Rishi Sunak eyes offering 100% guaranteed loans for microbusinesses
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Chancellor Rishi Sunak is preparing to offer 100% guaranteed loans of up to £25,000 to Britain’s microbusinesses.
Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey, three ex-Conservative chancellors and Tory MPs have put the chancellor under sustained pressure to amend the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CBILS) for a third time.
On Monday, the chancellor said he was “not persuaded” to increase guarantees for small businesses borrowing up to £5m through the scheme.
This is despite just 16,600 loans being approved so far out of 36,000 applications. This out of a potential market of 5.9m small businesses.
>See also: Coronavirus emergency business loans may be changed yet again
Would-be borrowers say they can either never get through to their bank or the bank rejects them as being too risky. The Catch-22 here is that banks are only lending to businesses it deems would have been viable before the coronavirus pandemic.
A recent survey by payment processor Tide showed small businesses expect revenue is set to decline by 57 per cent by the end of April. Over one in three small businesses (36 per cent) expect their year-on-year income to plummet by more than 90 per cent this month.
According to the Financial
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Future Fund – government tech start-up bailout scheme how it works
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
UPDATED: The government has announced its £250m Future Fund tech start-up bailout scheme to help innovative companies get through the coronavirus pandemic.
The widely anticipated Future Fund will issue convertible loans between £125,000 to £5m to innovative companies that are facing financing difficulties due to the Covid-19 outbreak. These loans will have to be matched by private investors.
>See also: Government eyes taking equity stakes in tech start-ups
These loans will be for three years and will be charged at an interest rate of 8 per cent.
Crucially, the government could end up owning half of some of Britain’s fastest-growing tech businesses. Future Fund loans may convert to equity at a discount of at least 20 per cent when companies undergo their next funding round.
This scheme will launch in May 2020, which may be too late for some start-ups reliant on investors to survive. Investment through government tax schemes such as the Enterprise Investment Scheme has dropped by 70 per cent this year.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak has charged British Business Bank with delivering the Future Fund.
See also: How do I apply for a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan?
The news will go some way to allaying tech start-up fears that
Hot Business News Today
Coronavirus emergency business loans may be changed yet again
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
UPDATED: Chancellor Rishi Sunak may change coronavirus emergency business loans yet again in the face of mounting evidence they aren’t working.
Yesterday, SmallBusiness.co.uk revealed that the majority of small businesses are having their loan applications turned down, even since the chancellor loosened the scheme on April 3.
Today, the British Chambers of Commerce announced that only 2 per cent of businesses surveyed had had their loan applications approved.
>See also: Fewer than 10% of businesses can access government coronavirus funding
On Tuesday evening, Rishi Sunak told the Financial Times that he would look at other countries to see if the government “could learn and improve” on the small business bailout scheme, which provides interest-free loans of up to £5m for up to one year before bank interest rate kicks in.
Switzerland, on the other hand, offers up to £400,000 as an interest-free loan repayable over five years. The Swiss government covers the entire amount. And cash can be accessed within 24 hours, not weeks, as in the case in Britain.
100-per-cent guarantees
George Osborne, the former Conservative chancellor and editor of the Evening Standard in London, told the BBC on Tuesday that the government should follow suit for the smallest
Hot Business News Today
First two fintechs added to coronavirus emergency loan scheme
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
The first two fintech banks have been added to the government’s coronavirus emergency business interruption loan scheme in an effort to break the logjam.
Other fintechs, including Funding Circle, Iwoca and Market Finance, which together have provided loans worth billions of pounds to small businesses, are also hoping to get approval to join the emergency loan scheme next week.
Only 2,500 loans worth £450m, have been agreed so far through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) out of a small business population of 5.9m.
Bankers say they have been overwhelmed with applications through the CBILS, with an estimated 300,000 enquiries.
Plus they complain that their loan book must be scrutinised by the British Business Bank, which itself is overwhelmed by the volume of loan applications.
>See also: 12 of the best digital banking platforms for small business
Yesterday, former Treasury secretary Baroness Morgan called for the CBILS to be opened up to fintechs, which, she said were more agile and more nimble than traditional lenders.
OakNorth Bank and Starling Bank have been added to the dozens of existing accredited lenders, alongside Cynergy Bank and The Co-Operative Bank.
Meanwhile, Arkle Finance, Close Brothers and Secure Trust Bank have also become accredited CBILS
Hot Business News Today
Government eyes taking equity stakes in tech start-ups
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
The government is considering various rescue packages to help Britain’s tech sector start-ups excluded from business rescue schemes announced so far.
Although government has lauded the UK’s tech sector as the spearhead of Britain’s new economy – Boris Johnson wrote the foreword to Tech Nation trumpeting UK tech investment report last year – banks are refusing to offer state-guaranteed loans to loss-making start-ups.
Yet France has announced a €4bn (£3.5bn) start-up bailout fund – called a liquidity plan – to help French start-ups stricken by the coronavirus crisis.
One idea being considered is the government offering loans to start-ups, which could either be repaid by businesses after the crisis or turned into equity stakes in tech start-ups owned by the state. Venture capital would have to match whatever the government invests, according to the Financial Times, to prove commercial viability and also keep within EU state aid rules, which ban direct state intervention.
See also: Why government needs to boost EIS tax relief to 80% to save our start-ups
It would be similar to 3i, then called the Industrial and Commercial Finance Corporation, the government scheme launched after the Second World War to help regenerate the economy.
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