Finance platforms including Crowdcube, KEO Digital and MarketInvoice have united to form a new body for business lending.
Launched at an event hosted at Cass Business School, the Next Generation Finance Consortium (NGFC) collaboration is aiming to create a platform for entrepreneurs to find alternative sources of funding for high growth businesses.
The eight-strong membership also includes Peoplefund.it, Capital Enterprise, the British Business Angels Association, the Community Development Finance Association, the London Business Angels and North London Community Finance.
Also in attendance at the event was Conservative politician Sam Gyimah, member of parliament for East Surrey and leader of SME finance report ‘Beyond the Banks’.
Having spent time as a business owner and employee Goldman Sachs, Gyimah said that policymakers need to ‘grapple with the practical problems that entrepreneurs have’.
The formation of the NGFC is about creating the right structures so that businesses do not ‘fall away’ at various stages of development, Gyimah added.
The event also saw a presentation of data from Shiona Davies, director of BDRC Continental, the authors of the ‘SME Finance Monitor’.
The statistical results displayed the demand and availability of finance for small and medium-sized enterprises and raised the issue that 50 per cent of UK businesses in the bracket possess an above-average risk rating.
As part of his position on the panel, Crowdcube co-founder and CEO Darren Westlake said that regulation issues are still causing problems for businesses looking to raise growth capital, and that red tape needs to fit in with new innovative funding options.
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