The European Investment Bank today committed £ 100m in loans to small businesses in the UK. Funds will be channeled through Funding Circle, the world’s leading online business loan marketplace. This funding, along with £ 25m from Funding Circle’s SME Income Fund, is expected to raise new loans of more than £ 200m in the succeeding seven years. This will provide much-needed capital to small businesses in the UK.
Take a break from the stressing world of businesses, take a quick quiz on entertainment. If you are a Harry Potter fan, check this out – which harry potter house are you?
European Investment Fund unlock money for SMEs
Thanks to this new partnership with Funding Circle, the EIB can for the first time provide finance to small businesses through an online loan marketplace. A primary aim of the European Investment Bank is to ensure that small to medium-sized businesses have better access to finance. With this new commitment, she recognizes that online loan marketplaces are an efficient way for small businesses to raise funding and are therefore an important new tool in stimulating the real economy.
To date, Funding Circle has raised more than £ 1.25 billion in loans to 16,000 companies in the UK. Since its inception in 2010, the platform has attracted a wide range of investors to lend to small businesses. Funding Circle receives support from the British government and its local authorities as well as from international institutions such as the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund and also from KfW, the German development bank.
“Small businesses stimulate economic growth with their investments. In order to expand, create jobs, and take advantage of new opportunities, these companies need uncomplicated and efficient access to finance. This partnership shows the commitment of the European Investment Bank to find new ways to boost investment across Europe. The £ 100m contribution from the EIB is not only intended to encourage small businesses across the UK to invest more than £ 200m in new investment. Rather, the bank’s funds support an innovative method of SME promotion that could also be used in other European countries, ”said Jonathan Taylor,
CEO and the Co-Founder of Funding Circle, Samir Desai, stated “The partnership is an important step in our journey towards creating a global marketplace through which creditworthy companies receive funding from a broad spectrum by investors. This high level of funding will ensure that more businesses have access to the finance they need to grow. The bank will thus contribute to economic growth and employment in the UK. ”
Funding Circle provides a direct link between supply and demand so that the European Investment Bank can provide small UK businesses with much-needed funding. There are currently more than 5.4 million small businesses in the UK, accounting for 99.3 percent of the private sector’s business. The small businesses together contribute 50 percent to GDP and 60 percent to employment.