Show me the money! The A-Z of finding funding for your business (part seven)
Posted: Mon 28th Aug 2017
Every month this year we're profiling the many sources of finance for your business. Part one is here, part two is here, part three is here, part four is here, part five is here, part six is here and part seven is below.
If you can't wait for the remaining parts, download the full 19 page A-Z guide to funding here.
Attend an event in Bristol on 27 September and meet lots of funders with money on offer! The event costs just £10 for non-members or free for members. Find out more here.
Peer to peer lending
As with crowdfunding, this has become a popular route to raising funds and involves platforms matching businesses looking for loans, with people ready to lend. MarketInvoice (referenced in part six) is a peer to peer lending platform, as are Funding Circle and Ratesetter.
Funding Circle is relevant if you are a limited company with over two years of filed accounts with Companies House and a minimum annual turnover of £100,000.
You can borrow between £5,000 and £1m with an online application form that takes around 20 minutes to complete and you receive a decision from underwriters within 48 hours.
If successful, the loan is posted to a live loan marketplace where lenders make offers with specified interest rates. It usually takes a few days for a loan to get fully funded. It’s then up to you if you accept the offer.
Ratesetter extends loans of between £25,000 and £2m with funds available typically within two weeks.
Useful links:
Power to Change
Set to reopen in 2018, the Power to Change Community Business Fund is a £10m fund that awards grants of between £50,000 to £300,000 to community businesses in England. Visit the website to check if your community project or business is eligible.
Useful link:
Power to Change Community Business Fund
Research and development tax credits
Not exactly a way of raising funds but research and development (R&D) tax credits are a route to securing a reduction in your corporate tax bill! The relief can only be claimed if you pay corporation tax.
To claim the relief you must show that: "the project seeks to achieve an advance in overall knowledge or capability in a field of science or technology through the resolution of scientific or technological uncertainty and not simply an advance in its own state of knowledge or capability.
"The project must relate to your company’s trade - either an existing one, or one that you intend to start up based on the results of the R&D."
Costs that can be allocated include staff time and any outsourcing costs to partners working on the R&D.
Visit the government website to ascertain if your company and expenditure is eligible to make a claim or speak with an organisation such as GrantTree that specialises in helping companies make claims.
Useful links:
[R&D tax credits](http://www.gov.uk/guidance/corporation-tax-researchand-development-rd-relief%20GrantTree www.granttree.co.uk/tax-credits)
Non-members can sign up to the event in Bristol on 27 September at 6pm - 8pm to meet several funders in person for just £10 or buy a membership ticket and get the event ticket for free!
If you're an Enterprise Nation member, you can attend the event for free! Sign in to your Enterprise Nation account and go to the events page where your discount will automatically be applied.
The Show me the money! campaign is supported by:
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