Finance Monthly April 2019 Edition

Navigating through uncertainty is a challenge but also an opportunity. Concerns over GDP growth, dislocation in the equity and bond markets and fears surrounding Brexit have complicated the fundraising landscape. Sam Smith from finnCap Group says that for small to medium-sized companies with scale-up plans, this more uncertain climate poses questions about whether they can access the financing they need to fund their growth. owever, sources of capital to back growth companies have actually increased. Government supported institutions such as the British Business Bank, regional growth funds, the bank financed BGF and its early-stage-funding subsidiary BGF Ventures are all helping SMEs with their funding needs. Alternatively, there are Peer2Peer lenders, venture capitalist and private equity houses with significant funds to deploy. Meanwhile, AIM as one of Europe’s best scale up exchanges remains a resilient source of capital. At finnCap, we work with a wide range of these institutions to supply funding opportunities for growing companies looking to scale up and the insights we have drawn from these relationships inform our view of the changing fundraising arena outlined below and how growth companies can best steer through this more complex environment. Funding outlook more challenging There are currently clear concerns about financing growth. These stem from a range of factors, including equity and bond market dislocation, the likely withdrawal of the EIB from the UK and largely Brexit inspired uncertainty around GDP growth and Brexit. In 2017 the EIB group lending was €654m to UK SMEs, which was some 42% of the organisation’s total funding commitments. NAVIGATING THE FUNDING LANDSCAPE IN A MORE UNCERTAIN ENVIRONMENT Sam Smith, CEO of finnCap Group plc H 36 www.finance-monthly.com ASK THE EXPERT - FUNDNG