Future Fund hits £1bn of loans as government scheme prepares to close

More than £1bn has been earmarked for 1,055 companies under the government’s future fund scheme with just days until the application deadline.

The £500m future fund offers convertible loans ranging from £125,000 to £5m from the government, subject to at least equal match funding from private investors.

Firms must have previously raised at least £250,000 in equity investment from third-party investors in the past five years.

Applications close on 31 January.

Peer-to-peer lenders including Assetz Capital, FutureBricks, JustUs and Crowd2Fund are among the companies that have used the scheme.

British Business Bank data released today (28 January) shows £1.06bn of convertible loans have been approved to 1,055 companies out of 1,616 applications since the scheme was launched in May 2020.

London accounts for 61 per cent of the funding approved for companies, with 15 per cent in the south of England, 10 per cent in the north, eight per cent in the east and four per cent in the Midlands.

Just four per cent of the funding went to companies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Of the 1,055 companies that have been approved, 77 per cent of funding is to companies with mixed gender senior management teams, the British Business Bank said.

The loans will have a minimum annual interest rate of eight per  cent.

Unlike a typical bank loan, the interest is not payable on a monthly basis and instead will accrue until the loan matures after 36 months. At this point, the interest will either be repaid or convert in equity.