It’s official. The Financial Times is mindful of the funding gap clearly demonstrated by independent research commissioned by Money&Co. and published on this site.
“The biggest bar to growth remains ignorance,” reports the FT. “Money & Co. commissioned a survey that claimed UK SMEs had an annual unmet need for finance of £4.3bn. The study, conducted by research agency Populus, asked senior management at 300 SMEs about their last loan application, comparing it with the average sum awarded. The difference, extrapolated across the UK’s 404,175 SMEs, was £4.3bn.
“While half of respondents agreed that bank bureaucracy was a deterrent when applying for a loan, 72 per cent would still approach one first for a business loan.
“Only 4 per cent would consider crowdfunding as an initial means to secure finance, while 5 per cent would first approach an angel investor and 11 per cent would try government funds.”
The FT also reports that “crowdfunding gives entrepreneurs cheaper and faster finance… rather than going cap in hand to a banker, those with a fledgling business can resort to crowdfunding – going straight to investors – and customers – for the money, often at cheaper rates.”