FEATURED POST
Relatively young start-up SMEs, typically between 3-5 years who want to grow their business to the next level, may have come across various barriers to their success and been unable to source the necessary funding required. This is due in part to the fact that in the SME market, high street banks are typically focused on secured lending. Young SMEs don’t always have the necessary collateral with which to persuade the banks to lend the funds required in order to help them grow.
They may even have tried to seek alternative funding from other means and not been successful. So where now for these ambitious SMEs to turn? Having almost exhausted what must feel like every avenue, how can they accelerate growth and take their young business to the next level?
How to bridge the funding gap?
It is not uncommon for these early-stage SMEs to be faced with such funding gaps as it is difficult for them to accurately estimate future operating expenses and profit margins are narrow. Gaps can also occur when there are not enough funds to finance operations or future development projects. However, it is not all “doom & gloom” and there are funding solutions out there. Typically, funding gaps can be addressed by seeking out investors and / or securing additional capital through either equity or debt financing.
CIOSIF and Market Gap Funding Solutions
The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Investment Fund (CIOSIF), a regional fund managed by The FSE Group, can act as a key building block to leverage additional finance for local eligible SMEs. CIOSIF is dedicated to bridging the market funding gap to serve innovative, ambitious, high growth and scalable SMEs who have been unable to source funding from conventional, or even alternative, funding channels to support their growth ambitions.
By understanding the direction and business goals of the individual SME and its clear expansion and growth plans, CIOSIF may be able to offer the debt finance or equity investment needed to enable the business to make that step change and reach the next level.
CIOSIF is delivered by the British Business Bank and supported by the European Regional Development Fund and HM Government as well as Cornwall & Isles of Scilly LEP, which has played such an important role in supporting market gap impact funding.
Contact us
CIOSIF is led by Ralph Singleton, The FSE Group’s head of fund in Cornwall, who has spent the last 30 years involved in UK and European equity markets, working both for traditional stockbroking firms and investment management businesses.
Ralph has extensive knowledge of companies across all sectors, both as an investor and an advisor. He has also mentored teams of analysts and fund managers in the UK and European SmallCap markets and he is supported by an experienced team of fund managers.
If your business has been unable to obtain through traditional sources, all or part of the financial support required to meet the challenges of 2020 and grow into 2021 and beyond, please get in touch with Ralph who will be able to provide more information on the funds available to support your growth:
Email: ralph.singleton@thefsegroup.com / Connect on LinkedIn / Tel: 07947 942119
Visit: www.thefsegroup.com
www.thefsegroup.com/fund/ciosif-debt / www.thefsegroup.com/fund/ciosif-equity
