If you’re starting or growing a business, it’s important to know about the full range of funding options available to you.
Covering grants, loans, bids & tenders, crowdfunding, angel investors and venture capital, this is what Day 3 (‘Funding & Finance’) of our annual Newcastle Startup Week festival is all about.
If you need a cash injection to grow your business, one great option that you might not be aware of is peer-to-peer lending from Funding Circle. If you’ve been been trading for 2 years or more, you could borrow between £10k-£500k over 6 mths-5 yrs at a rate from just 1.9% per annum, with your online application approved in as little as 5 hours but typically 24 hours!
How it works
Funding Circle works by getting investors to directly invest in established businesses which have been assessed & approved through the platform. By doing so, businesses get the funding they need to grow & investors can earn attractive returns from the money & interest paid back each month.
- Since 2010, Funding Circle have lent more than £3billion to over 30,000 businesses
- 75,000 investors have lent £3.8 billion through earning £215million in interest
- In 2017, small businesses used their loans to create and sustain 75,000 jobs globally
- For every £1 lent to businesses in the UK, £2 is added to the economy
Funding Circle is one of the best-capitalised lending platforms in the world & listed on the London Stock Exchange in October 2018. They have raised approximately £550 million since 2010 from some of the largest & most sophisticated investors around, their backers collectively manage over $5 trillion & are the leading firms behind Facebook, Twitter, Skype & Betfair.
Is it right for you?
If you borrow money with interest from a lender there is always a risk that you will get into debt that you are unable to repay. Even so, there are very few grants available for new or growing businesses in the UK these days & where they do exist, the application process can take days, weeks or even months with no guarantee of success. It can also be difficult to borrow money from banks, find the right angel investor or venture capitalist & when you do, you might not want to give away equity / shares in your business in return.
Therefore, I personally think peer-to-peer lending from a platform like Funding Circle could be a great option for established, revenue-generating businesses that want to access growth funding in a quick & transparent way that also keeps them in control of the process.
Furthermore, when I look at the map below, it suggests that businesses in the North East of England are currently missing out on opportunities to access alternative sources of funding like Funding Circle through a lack of awareness which is why we’re delighted to have them onboard as a ‘Sponsor’ of Newcastle Startup Week 2019 so our delegates get to hear first hand how they could help their business grow.
Find out more
To see if you qualify or to apply online, visit the Funding Circle website.
For a real-life example of how Funding Circle is positively helping British businesses manage their cash flow better, check out this case study of Crawley-based P&H Motorcycles.
And if you’d like to meet the Funding Circle team in person & see what other funding options are available, make sure you attend at least Day 3 (‘Funding & Finance’) of our Newcastle Startup Week festival in May 2019 by booking your ticket(s) here.