Frequently Asked Questions

Venture debt is a term loan sitting alongside your equity - it gives you more runway without the dilution of raising another round. Think of it as capital that lets you hit the next milestone on your own terms, rather than going back to investors before you're ready.

We lend from £1m upwards - there's no hard ceiling if the business is the right fit. The starting point is your ARR: we'll typically lend up to 12 months' recurring revenue, so the bigger and more predictable your revenue base, the more headroom you have.

When you have a clear 12–18 month plan - a product launch, a market expansion, a hiring push - and you'd rather not raise equity at today's valuation to fund it. It works best as a bridge: you use the debt to reach a higher valuation milestone, then raise your next round from a stronger position.

We don't take personal guarantees for our venture debt loans. We secure our loans through a fixed and floating charge over the business in all cases and there may be other security required which is assessed on a case by case basis.

Yes. Most of our venture debt borrowers aren't yet profitable. What we need to see is a credible path to EBITDA breakeven within the interest-only period of our loan.

Rather than waiting 6–9 months for HMRC to pay out your R&D tax credit, we advance you up to 80% of the claim now. The facility is repaid when HMRC settles.

Typically around 5 days from application to funds in your account, assuming your claim is submitted and documentation is in order.

We either need the submitted CT600 or need a comfort letter from an approved R&D tax advisor.

We can lend to first-time claimants provided we have a comfort letter from an approved R&D consultant.

We build a base-case repayment timeline of 2 months from CT600 filing. If there's an active enquiry on the claim, that's something we need to know upfront - it can push repayment out by 6 months or more.

The R&D Advance is against your HMRC tax credit receivable; the Grant Advance is against confirmed grant payments from bodies like Innovate UK, Horizon, or ESA. Both are short-term, single-repayment facilities - the difference is what's backing them.

We can lend up to 80% of your grant receipts over the next 6 months.

Yes - formally awarded, with an offer letter in hand. Applications in progress or letters of intent don't qualify. We're lending against money that's genuinely committed.

We can still lend, but we won't advance against a milestone until we're satisfied it's on track and deliverable. For cost-based grants like Innovate UK or Horizon, where reimbursement follows qualifying spend, the structure is more straightforward.

Yes - we can lend up to 80% against each and every quarterly grant payment as it falls due. Each drawdown has a minimum of £30k and is structured to match the grant's payment schedule, with repayment tied to each incoming grant receipt.

Export Finance is a government-backed term loan for UK businesses that sell goods or services overseas. Working with UK Export Finance (UKEF), we provide working capital of £150k–£500k to support your export growth - not tied to a specific contract, but available at the company level. It's faster and simpler than most government-backed schemes, with funds typically in place within two weeks.

It's a term loan backed by a UK Export Finance (UKEF) guarantee, which covers 80% of the loan amount. That guarantee means we can support businesses we might otherwise find harder to lend to on a purely unsecured basis - though full credit assessment still applies.

No - that's one of its most useful features. It's working capital at the company level, not contract-level trade finance. You can use it to fund growth across your export business generally.

You need to be a UK-registered business with UK staff and tax obligations, and your export revenues need to meet UKEF's eligibility thresholds - broadly, at least 20% of turnover from exports in one of the last three years, or at least 5% in each of them.

Around 2 weeks from application - faster than most government-backed schemes, because our process is designed to move quickly once UKEF eligibility is confirmed.

We prefer profitable or near-profitable businesses for this product. Contracted export revenues, clean PAYE/VAT, and a clear repayment trajectory matter more here than for our Innovation Finance products.