Growth Street pledges £60m for Scottish SMEs to address funding gap
PEER-TO-PEER lender Growth Street has pledged to channel £60m to SMEs across Scotland, in a bid to help tackle the funding gap left by banks.
According to Growth Street’s research, the total overdraft limit available to Scottish SMEs has been on the decline, despite a boom in the number of businesses being registered in the country. This has left a business funding gap of more than £800m.
“The £800m funding gap is a dramatic realisation that overdraft facilities available to businesses in Scotland are in short supply,” said Greg Carter, chief executive of Growth Street.
“Scottish businesses face a significant void in their funding, which might result in an everyday working capital squeeze.
“Growth Street wants to lead the charge to fill the hole left by the banks. As one of the few working capital lending platforms in Scotland, we want to kick off a funding revolution by channeling £60m of funds into SMEs across Scotland”.
Growth Street has been expanding its presence in Scotland in recent months, opening a new office in Glasgow and hiring a new business development manager for the area.
Since it launched in 2014, Growth Street has facilitated more than £100m of borrowing in England and Wales. It is one of several alternative lenders which are now turning their attentions north of the border.
Assetz Capital and ThinCats have both established business development teams in Scotland, while Edinburgh-based LendingCrowd recently signed a £18.75m funding deal with the Scottish Investment Bank (SIB) and Dutch entrepreneurial bank NIBC.
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