Lending to SMBs gets further £70m boost

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills targets need for growth with three extra lenders

The Rt Hon Dr Vince Cable MP has promised a lending boost will spur growth among SMBs to the tune of £70m shared between three new lenders.

Market Invoice, URICA and Beechbrook Capital are getting £30m to offer to smaller firms as an alternative to bank loans, and have committed to attract private sector investment that boosts the pot to £70m, according to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) today.

Cable (pictured, below right) said poor access to financing is still strangling too many smaller businesses, preventing them growing and expanding.

"We are taking a range of actions to support SMEs and shake up business finance markets, including through the new business bank," he said. "Market Invoice has been awarded £5m; it is an innovative online platform through which SMEs can raise funds by selling individual invoices to a pool of investors.

"URICA is being allocated £10m; it will establish a new supply chain finance platform to provide a consistent channel of cash from institutional investors to SME suppliers by enabling early payment of their bills to mid-sized growth companies. Beechbrook Capital is receiving £17m; it is a mezzanine fund manager and will establish a new fund to lend to SMEs focused on growth capital."

Four new lenders - Funding Circle, Zopa, BOOST&Co and Credit Asset Management - were announced in December 2012 and allocated a total £55m, with private sector investment sought to bring the total available through all seven lenders of £240m.

"Opportunities to use the small amount of funding remaining in the small business tranche of the BFP, in a way that best provides quick support to UK SMEs and mid-sized businesses, will be identified over the coming weeks," said Cable.

Eighty-five per cent of all business loans are via the largest four banks, according to BIS, but this additional funding is from the Business Finance Partnership's small-business tranche, which aims to make more options available, particularly to SMBs, and improve competition.