Start Up Loans

We regularly receive approaches from young entrepreneurs seeking relatively small amounts of capital (i.e. £2-10k) to get their idea off the ground, but who are not quite ready to offer equity in their business. 

Unfortunately, unless they are willing to do a rewards deal as an interim step we’re usually not in a position to help them.  To try and bridge this gap we have partnered with Start Up Loans to provide small loans to those that might not yet be ready for CrowdBnk.

Start Up Loans is a £117.5 million government-funded initiative that provides young entrepreneurs with repayable loans, together with an experienced mentor.  The programme was created in 2012 within The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and has backed over 7,200 UK businesses to date with more than £42 million of loans given.  The average loan is £5,400.

The initiative offers young entrepreneurs a great boost to help get their business off the ground and transform their ideas into viable, high growth businesses.  The loans are low-cost compared to market rates (at approximately 6.2% APR), which, and when coupled with the added benefit of free mentoring, has made the programme hugely popular with over [•] applications in the scheme’s first year.

To apply to the programme, you must be 18-30 years of age and live in either England or Northern Ireland (with appropriate work permissions).  There is talk, however, of eliminating the age cap following a recommendation by Lord Young.  You don’t necessarily need to have started a business to apply, but if you have it must be a true start-up and can’t have traded for more than 12 months.  The application process is simple and be completed online here.

We are delighted to partner with Start Up Loans and look forward to jointly helping UK businesses reach their potential.  If you’re a young entrepreneur who thinks that a loan from Start Up Loans may be helpful to get your idea off the ground before raising more significant growth capital on CrowdBnk, we would be happy to discuss your options with you and introduce you to one of our contacts at Start Up Loans.