JustUs aims to raise £1.2m through the future fund
JustUs is aiming to raise £1.2m through the future fund after it failed to secure a loan via the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CBILS).
Founder Lee Birkett said that the peer-to-peer lending platform did not meet the criteria for CBILS due to losses in the business.
JustUs is now looking to utilise the future fund, which provides businesses with convertible loans ranging from £125,000 to £5m from the government subject to at least equal match funding from private investors.
Birkett is aiming to raise £1.2m, made up of £600,000 through shareholders and £600,000 matched by convertible loans under the scheme, in order to develop and improve the platform’s technology and hire new staff.
Read more: Who has been utilising the future fund?
“There are probably no fintechs that received CBILS loans because they have raised equity and have losses and that’s why the future fund was designed, to support those fast growth businesses that are equity funded,” he said.
Birkett said one of the platform’s lead investors, Manchester Venture Partners, has registered for the fund to take part in the fundraising.
He added that with only 148 investors allowed to participate, JustUs will likely implement a minimum £50,000 investment limit for 12 investors.
The future fund is scheduled to close to applications on 30 September, although reports emerged on Monday that the Treasury is set to extend the scheme.
Birkett wants the government to extend the future fund and raise its funding under this scheme from 50p in the pound to 100p in the pound, removing the need for private fundraising.
“The future is collaborative funding from the Small Business Interruption Loan Service and the future fund,” he said.
“I think there will, and has to be, an evolution of the future fund.”
Other P2P lenders have also been utilising matched investment from the future fund.
At the end of August, property lender Propio 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 while Assetz Capital aims to raise £1m to £1.5m to scale and grow.
The latest data from the Treasury shows that up to 16 August the future fund has provided £588.3m through 590 convertible loans.
