Who has been utilising the future fund?
A number of alternative lending platforms have been utilising the government’s future fund – a pandemic initiative to support innovative and growing companies.
The scheme which launched at the end of May, offering convertible loans ranging from £125,000 to £5m from the government subject to at least equal match funding from private investors.
Here Peer2Peer Finance News sorts through which lenders have been applying for the fund before it closes on 30 September.
Read more: Industry gives future fund a wary welcome
Propio
Propio has received the matched funding from the government, after raising the private capital needed from 30 of its investors.
At the end of August, the property lender raised £278,000 in total from its funding round and the government’s future fund to prepare for its delayed launch into P2P lending this Autumn.
Propio will use the funds to grow its lending volumes, gain its appointed representative permissions from Rebuildingsociety and update its technology platform in preparation for launching its new offering in October.
“We raised the private capital ourselves, using a legal platform called SeedLegals, through 30 investors and the government matched it,” said Tom Buttress, co-founder and chief executive of Propio.
“It didn’t make economic sense for us to use Crowdcube or Seedrs.
“Government processes are often time consuming and laborious, but I’d say the future fund process is very good, clear and pretty straightforward.”
Read more: P2P lenders fundraising on Seedrs set to benefit from secondary market changes
Assetz Capital
At the start of June, Assetz Capital launched its fourth funding round on Seedrs, which it said would be a pre-cursor to its application to the future fund.
The platform set a minimum target to raise £500,000 from private investors, which it intended to be match funded by the government’s investment, taking the total to £1m.
In July, Assetz said it was raising its latest fundraising target from £1m to £1.5m, after an initial Seedrs equity funding round was oversubscribed with more than £652,000 pledged by investors.
Assetz said it will use the proceeds from the fund for working capital and to grow as well as for the legal and structuring work needed to deliver the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CBILS) and to provide some skin in the game for lending required by CBILS.
CapitalRise
CapitalRise is waiting on its matched funding from the future fund, after raising £1.15m from a crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs.
The Prime property investment platform plans on using the funds to expand its loan originations, marketing and investor relations teams and product range, including the launch of a self-invested personal pension wrapper.
Crowd for Angels
Rather than using Seedrs, Crowd for Angels is enabling companies to raise money on its platform, with a view to matching the investment with the future fund.
The crowdfunding platform accepts convertible notes, which investors are able to put into an Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA).
Interest earned on the convertible loan notes by investors will be subject to income tax but the platform’s IFISA can potentially shelter all or most of the income and gains.