MarketFinance, the fintech business lender, is offering grants of £5,000 to support small businesses.
Businesses have until December 31 to apply for grants through the MarketFinance Business Booster Fund.
Three businesses will be selected and announced on January 6.
Timings of subsequent rounds will be confirmed in 2021.
>See also: Treasury to discuss COVID-19 grant for company directors
Any business in any sector can apply, so long as it has been trading for at least two years and is showing positive growth. It is not necessary to be an existing customer of MarketFinance to be eligible for the grant.
MarketFinance, which has offices in London and Manchester, is especially keen to support entrepreneurs who value diversity, inclusion and giving back.
Since 2011, MarketFinance has advanced over £3bn to companies across a range of sizes and sectors, providing working capital and finance for everything from paying staff and suppliers to launching new products or services and accelerating growth.
MarketFinance is backed by Barclays, Santander InnoVentures, European venture capital fund Northzone (whose investments include Klarna, iZettle and Trustpilot) and private equity group MCI Capital (also invested in iZettle, Azimo and Gett).
>See also: Liverpool launches £9.5m grant fund for ‘excluded’ self-employed
Anil Stocker, CEO of MarketFinance, said: “I’m very excited to announce the launch of our first MarketFinance Business Booster Fund. These grants represent a small boost that will help the successful businesses pivot, scale or grow in 2021. It’s been a difficult year for most, but we can’t forget that a lot of businesses were good, strong and viable in 2019.
“We want to support the UK’s hardest working and most exciting SMEs. In addition to the grant, we will offer the time and skills of our expert staff to help their leadership teams. Whether they need tech, marketing, finance or communications support, we will provide the resources to help them get to where they want to go.”
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