British Business Investments, a commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank, has announced a £30 million commitment to support UK small businesses through Funding Circle’s UK SME Direct Lending Fund.

Navenio, the healthcare scale-up whose location-based technology has been shown to double the throughput of hospital teams, has secured a £400,000 grant from the UK government and Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, to address the impact of COVID-19 on hospitals.

British Business Investments (BBI), a commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank, has committed an additional £25m to Assetz Capital, the property-focused marketplace lender, in a boost to UK housebuilders and SMEs.

Alternative fund manager, Frontier Development Capital (FDC), has announced the first close of its latest fund, the FDC Debt Fund (FDC Debt LP). The £100 million debt fund achieved a first close of £75m and will be announcing its first deals within the coming weeks.

Independent Growth Finance (IGF), a leading independent asset-based lender, has so far provided £65 million of new lending since lockdown began. IGF was one of the first ABL lenders to become accredited on the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) in April. Providing much needed financial support to both new and existing clients during this challenging time. With further funding set aside to support more UK businesses before the deadline at the end of November. 

Simply, the non-bank SME lender, has raised a fourth financing tranche from the British Business Bank to add to its existing ENABLE Funding facility. In total, the four rounds of financing will provide more than £230m of funding to smaller businesses across the UK.  This is now the largest facility under the Bank’s ENABLE Funding programme, which aims to improve the supply of asset and lease finance to smaller UK businesses.

Oakham-based machinery and vehicle dealer, C&M Retail Group, is embarking on a major expansion programme which will create up to 20 new jobs after agreeing a funding deal to enable the development of a purpose-built industrial and business hub, as well as the launch of a new vehicle sales company.

The Advanced Therapy Treatment Centre (ATTC) network has been awarded a total of £9.5 million to fund an additional 12 months of the programme. £6.5 million has been granted from the Government's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and an additional £3 million from its Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund (ISCF), managed by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). The funding will support additional initiatives through to March 2022 and continuation of certain centre and network projects which were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. This award builds upon the significant success of the ATTC network to date. The UK accounts for 12% of global advanced therapy medicinal product (ATMP) clinical trials and the network supports half of those.

Funds advised by Hilltop Credit Partners, a specialist funding partner for SME residential developers, have completed a £360,000 pre-development bridging loan on a greenfield residential development in the affluent village of Braunton, North Devon.  The facility will be used to refinance the development site and is expected to be followed by a £3.5m loan for a 20-month phased development of 11 private and 12 affordable residential units. 

In November last year, Porky Whites, a premium British sausage brand that had been running since 1935, was at the brink of collapse. Independent Growth Finance (IGF) provided £750,000 of funding to the company after Porky Whites had been let down by its bank. This ensured that the family-owned business was in a position not only to survive, but to thrive.  IGF provides asset-based lending, which allows businesses to draw on the value of their own machinery, property and stock. 

The British Business Bank has announced that it has approved Conister for accreditation to the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS), and Bank of Ireland (UK) for accreditation under the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS).

A £3.5 million project loan facility from the Development Bank of Wales has enabled civil engineers Andrew Scott to deliver contracts during Covid-19.   Celebrating 150 years in business this year, Andrew Scott secured a range of new contracts in late 2019. Project finance was then required to fund working capital requirements resulting in a drawdown of £2 million from a £3.5 million loan facility provided by the Development Bank of Wales.