Bath-headquartered alternative finance provider Time Finance has boosted its offering to expanding small businesses after becoming an accredited lender for the government-backed Growth Guarantee Scheme.
Designed to help more smaller firms access finance, the scheme was launched in July as a successor to the government’s Recovery Loan Scheme.
It is expected to benefit around 11,000 businesses nationwide by helping improve the terms for finance deals up to £1m.
It is administered by the British Business Bank and open to businesses turning over up to £45m.
Time Finance, which previously took part in the British Business Bank’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, will make the new scheme available through its asset finance division, through which businesses can get faster access to new equipment to either expand or adapt operations as they grow and evolve.
Time Finance managing director of asset finance Steve Nichols, pictured, said: “Business finance is about providing solutions that enable businesses to survive and thrive, and the range of recovery and growth initiatives facilitated by the British Business Bank over the past four years are representative of just how important it is to strike that balance.
“The Covid recovery schemes of the past have been much more about survival. The launch of the Growth Guarantee Scheme is ushering in a much more optimistic era of growth.
“Working with the British Business Bank, we’re very proud to be part of that story, to have become an accredited lender for our asset finance solution, and to be able to give more SMEs access to the vital equipment they need.”
Time Finance specialises in providing asset, loan and invoice finance products to more than 11,000 UK businesses to help them realise their growth plans.
The firm listed on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market in 2006. Four years ago it launched a strategic growth plan which has already enabled it to expand its lending book to a record milestone of £190m-plus.
It recently posted a 35% increase in pre-tax profit for the six months to last November, taking them to £2.7m on revenue 19% higher at £15.7m.
