If you are looking to raise investment here are some specific suggestions. Your options include:
Grants: Still available from local authority, regional and central government
Loans: Debt finance or loans are available from most of the major banks but also some specialist and regional providers. Don’t forget invoice discounting and lease finance.
Equity: From venture capital funds, regional, national players and also Business Angels and the occasional government supported organisation.
Crowdfunding: the models vary but you can now raise finance from any number of crowdsource or crowfinance platforms on the web. Take care to read the small print as conditions and costs vary as do the pros and con of using these sources of capital. Some are debt or loan and some equity providers
Peer-to-Peer: this is essentially person to person or person to business lending. A broker or platform site matches individual investors who are willing to lend to businesses for a higher return than they get from bank deposits. They take extra risk of course and the small businesses get loans at a relatively high interest rate but they do at least get the loan. Drawbacks are the risks on both sides with no Bank in between and sometimes fees chareged by the broker.
Getting the combination right isn’t easy and considering the pros and cons of each can depend on your business and what you want to achieve, where you are in the business cycle and other factors, even location.
Talk to us...we can help you find the right source of finance and make the right decisions.
Here are some suggestions of fund managers in the North of England and other sources of information... This is not meant to be a complete list and we do not endorse or recommend any particular route or investors !
NEF (North East Finance) manage the £125m North East Finance funds put in place in the North East of England in 2009. The individual funds are actually managed by the Fund Managers below:
Rivers Capital Partners, is our sister company based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne started in April 2009 by its founding partners who are themselves managing thier own business take the entrepreneurs approach
NEL Fund Managers have been in venture capital and startup, mez and follow on loan and equity finance for a long time in the North East of England and now Yorkshire
NorthStar Ventures is a key technology and specialist early stage venture capitalist in the North East of England
IP Group a London based technology fund manager focusing on university, research and development venture capital, are a highly professional listed fund manager with a lot to offer
FW Capital originally created to manage new investment funds in Wales, FW now manages a range of funds as a specialist early stage fund manager
UK STEEL ENTERPRISE is also worth a special mention as a source of venture capital funds, but also loans and grants. Its targeted by area so not everyone (even in the North East of England) can access it but have a look at its website as they have a great track record.
