Funding Xchange partners with Enterprise Nation in bid for BCR funding
Business finance aggregator platform Funding Xchange has partnered with Enterprise Nation in a bid for funding from a government-designed scheme to boost innovation in business banking.
Banking Competition Remedies was set up by the UK government to distribute £775m of money from Royal Bank of Scotland as a condition of its state bailout in 2008.
If successful in their bid, Enterprise Nation, which is a small business support network, will use Funding Xchange’s technology to build the Enterprise Nation Finance Portal.
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The new lending tool would then help small businesses that already look to Enterprise Nation for advice, to access the funding they need to grow their businesses.
It would include access to funding through online learning tools backed up by a network of over 10,000 advisers across the country.
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Recent research from Funding Xchange has found that many smaller and early stage businesses needing loans and overdrafts to run their businesses are unable to access them through the high street banks, with many not qualifying for the government’s bounce back loan scheme.
The Enterprise Nation Finance Portal, in conjunction with Funding Xchange, would help these businesses access the finance they need from digital and challenger banks, and alternate lenders, on market terms and with no commission costs.
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“Traditionally, bank managers played an important part in supporting the local business community with advice and guidance through the different growth stages,” said Katrin Herrling (pictured), chief executive of Funding Xchange.
“With the reduction of frontline staff and the rise of digital lenders that are excellent at making funding available to those businesses that are ready to access finance, this has left a gap.
“The Enterprise Nation Finance Portal will fill this gap by providing the much-needed access to tools and advisers – as well as access to finance solutions.”
Read more: Boost for SMEs as business loan application times drop
“Adding the Enterprise Nation Funding Finance Portal to the overall Enterprise Nation platform would make a huge difference to many of the businesses that look to us for help and support,” said Emma Jones, founder and chief executive of Enterprise Nation.
“Funding Xchange is already doing amazing things to plug the funding gap, and with the support of the RBS Remedies fund, we could do so much more to help businesses at this critical time.”
The RBS Remedies Pool E – from which Enterprise Nation and FundingXchange are bidding for funding – arose from £50m of the initial allocations being returned by Metro Bank and a further £50m being returned from Nationwide.
