Small business bosses and individual lenders alike need to wake up, smell the coffee – and drink it. That’s the message coming from the Money&Co. headquarters, as more news breaks of a lack of awareness alternative sources of funding among small businesses. Alternative finance providers such as Money&Co. need to do their bit, of course, […]
The London School of Business and Finance reports on an Institute of Directors survey that shows small-business confidence levels are high, but awareness of alternative sources of business funding is low. This report is an example of one arm of two recurring themes, the ying and yang of alternative finance (almost a double message). On […]
Peer-to-peer (P2P) lending is a balancing act. On the one side, platforms like ours need to have active and engaged individual lenders who want a good return on their capital. On the other, it’s vital to find and vet the small businesses seeking capital very carefully (strong record of profitability, assets on which we can […]
The UK start-up revolution shows no sign of ending, according to a recent report in The Financial Times. The newspaper cites various sources in stating that “last year nearly 660,000 companies were established, up from 608,000 in 2015, according to the Centre for Entrepreneurs, a think-tank. This year it looks likely that the record will […]
It’s often dangerous to draw broad conclusions from small data sets. But our own positive experience of demand for peer-to-peer (P2P) business loans (from individual lenders and borrowing SMEs alike) is mirrored in the larger picture reported by our friends at P2P Finance News. “PEER-TO-PEER lenders were among the delivery partners helping the British […]
Call it “alternative facts” or “media bias” if you will, but we can’t help but notice the large and increasing volume of stories that relate the unhelpful lack of clarity around the Brexit process. AltFi is the latest among many; it carries a report on concerns about late payment and Brexit uncertainty among SMEs. “More than […]
Maybe it’s just British reticence, but is seems that we – that’s the alternative-finance and Fintech sector – are just not loud enough. We need to make more noise, to beat our own drum more boldly. We need to make ourselves heard and understood by the small- and medium-sized businesses that online crowdfunding business lending […]
Strength and stability seem to be in short supply in today’s uncertain world. As we argued what now seems a long time ago, whether the hung Parliament sees the UK stay in Europe’s single market or not, peer-to-peer (P2P) lending is going nowhere. The business of putting together individuals seeking a good return on capital […]
The peer-to-peer (P2P) lending sector is still growing steadily, after several years of very rapid expansion. Perhaps part of the reason for this is the fact that small and medium-sized businesses seem to be rather poorly served by mainstream financial services (see several pieces – “older stories” – written over the past three years in […]
Just as we were once exhorted to Dig For Victory, it seems we’re going to have to Dig Deep For Growth. Our friends at CityA.M. report on the Federation of Small Businesses’ demands for its Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise members as Brexit approaches. “The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) wants the British Business Bank to […]