Online retailers and couriers are experiencing record peak volumes and many are stretched to full capacity. ParcelHero says the worst is yet to come as Christmas 2020 could be 50% busier than last year. It’s urging retailers to work closely with their delivery partners, otherwise a looming driver shortage and strained supply chains will mean […]
B-North, the Manchester-based firm building an SME lending bank for the UK, has raised a further £1m as it moves closer to obtaining regulatory approval. B-North has teamed up with County Durham fintech specialist, Growth Capital Ventures (GCV), to announce the fundraise, which is part of a £20m series A fundraising round designed to give […]
Aldermore’s ‘Kick Start your Cash flow’ campaign launches by introducing new flexible Invoice Finance solutions aimed at easing SME’s cash flow needs The offering includes no contract tie-in for first six months, and no set up fee for discounting and factoring products Smoother onboarding process – secure electronic signing of documents through Adobe Sign […]
According to the recently launched IFB Research Foundation The State of the Nation: The UK Family Business Sector 2019–20 report, 81.1% of all SME family firms have at least one woman in a leadership role, defined as an owner, partner, or director. The report also reveals that 22.6% of family-owned SMEs describe themselves as being […]
Allica Bank, the business bank dedicated to empowering small and medium-sized businesses to succeed, has continued its recent growth with a trio of senior fintech hires, strengthening its commitment to deliver expert banking for business Britain. The business bank recently completed a follow-on investment of £26m led by existing majority shareholder, Warwick Capital Partners and […]
Arbuthnot Commercial Asset Based Lending (ABL) has structured and delivered a £3.75m facility for Specialist Crafts, the UK’s largest supplier of art, craft and design materials to educators across the world. The comprehensive funding package comprised of an invoice discounting facility and a CBILS loan. Having completed a management buyout just one month before, new […]
A ground-breaking social business group which provides high quality social housing has secured £3m of investment from Big Issue Invest (BII), allowing early stage investor Impact Ventures UK (IVUK) to successfully exit three years early. Homes for Good (HFG) provides a solution to the lack of affordable, quality housing to people with limited housing choice […]
As the fear of a second wave of Covid-19 increases, SMEs are demonstrating their resilience, as research from Nucleus Commercial Finance reveals nearly three fifths (57%) have had to adapt to survive the pandemic. Of these businesses, over a quarter (27%) said the new strategy is delivering success and a further 53% said they will […]
The CEO of iwoca, one of Europe’s largest business lenders, has outlined the need for the fintech industry to be strengthened so it can support the growth of small and micro-businesses after the Bounce Back Loan scheme closes at the end of the year. Writing in CityAM [see article], Christoph Rieche argues that these smaller […]
The latest HMRC statistics on Research & Development tax relief reveal that in 20 years, over 300,000 claims have been made, delivering £33.3bn of tax relief to UK businesses since its introduction in 2000. What is now a clear trend, this year’s figures show again that claims have risen in both number, and level of […]
