It’s that time again when we reflect on what we’ve achieved in this past year and look forward to next year. With over 150,000 SMEs on the platform, Capitalise has had a record year for funding transactions. This has even exceeded the volumes we saw for funding cases during those crazy times of the CBILS loans in the pandemic.
I recently sat down with our Head of Funding, Nick Richardson, to discuss some of his team’s highlights from 2024. They represent how we’ve worked with a full range of sectors, using various different funding products and lenders. Plus we share how we handled some of those trickier situations which presented particular challenges. And Capitalise found brilliant solutions for all!
What I found really impressive during our chat, is that where possible, the experience of the team means they are able to suggest alternative ideas, which can provide a better result in the end. It’s clear that the advantage of having a platform application is that the process is relatively quick and simple. But, whereas this may mean that for other platforms this means rigidity, by combining the Capitalise human expertise behind the tech, we can ensure that we don’t rely solely on the original ‘ask’.
Have a listen and you will hear how we funded:
1. The buy-to-let mortgage refinance after the end of the initial property development loan, where unfortunately the costs had significantly overrun the original budgets. With the high inflation of materials and labour prices in the past year, this will be a similar situation that many have found in the construction sector.
2. The invoice finance case for an agency which was a far quicker, cheaper and more flexible solution than the short-term loan they were initially seeking.
3. The Growth Guarantee Scheme loan which enabled a retailer to buy stock in time for Christmas, at a much better rate than the short-term facilities they had previously relied on.
4. The asset refinance facility secured for a company which was loss-making after incurring significant legal fees in the previous year. Few other products would have been available in the market in this situation.
5. The management buyout where £1m was raised for a transaction in the IT support sector. This was obtained despite business results showing a downturn, due to the difficult trading environment in the business during the management transition.
I was pleased to see how the reputation of Capitalise in the market and the trusted relationships between our team and the lenders themselves, ensured that offers were made, when the going looked particularly tough! Finally, we looked forward to 2025 when yet more innovation is expected, as we continue to support SMEs across the whole spectrum of business challenges and opportunities!
