New research from accountancy and business advisory firm, Cowgill Holloway, reveals ‘Crowdfunding’ is the UK’s most frequently searched term on business funding.

Cowgill Holloway has produced a league table of the most searched terms, highlighting the popularity of crowdfunding searches amongst other alternative finance terms including ‘p2p lending’ and ‘crowdsourcing’. The term ‘crowdfunding’ was significantly higher than the terms ‘business loan’ and ‘bank loan’, suggesting that awareness of certain forms of alternative finance is improving.

However, searches for ‘asset finance’ and ‘invoice finance’ remain very low, indicating that there is still work to be done in building awareness of all the options, rather than those which have perhaps received more media attention in recent months.

The research also follows recent statistics showing that just 230 businesses benefited from the bank referral scheme which was set up just over a year ago by the government, highlighting the work to be done in ensuring that businesses aren’t effectively stunted by inaccessibility of finance.

Director of Cowgill Holloway Business Funding, Benjamin Day, says, ‘I don’t think anyone will be surprised to see the popularity of such search phrases rising, but what has been interesting to note is that searches for ‘crowdfunding’ have actually overtaken searches on traditional forms of finance.

We’ve also seen big budgets spent on digital advertising for these newer types of funding meaning people are seeing these brand names appear at the top of the advertising rankings – as well as the organic ranking – even when people are searching for funding quite generally.’

Benjamin continues, ‘Businesses we are meeting with are increasingly enquiring about alternative means of securing finance. They are ambitious and are demanding options. No longer does a one size loan model fit all; it’s a complex matchmaking process to find a bespoke solution to bring business goals within reach, sometimes incorporating a number of finance methods.

This is why we launched our business funding arm – the sheer range of solutions available can be overwhelming and for a business owner already spinning many plates, it’s near impossible to survey the market with enough attention to be confident that you have the right solution.’

Further reading on crowdfunding

• Alternative finance: Opportunities and risks for small businesses

Looking for finance? SmallBusiness.co.uk is working in partnership with trusted lenders to find the best business funding deals. Find out more here.