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British Business Bank increases Simply’s funding line to provide £300m of funding to SMEs

Press release 17 December 2021

Today, the British Business Bank announces an increase to business lender Simply’s existing ENABLE Funding facility. In total, the facility will provide £300 million of funding to SMEs across the UK. This is now the largest facility under the Bank’s ENABLE Funding programme, which aims to improve the supply of asset finance to the UK smaller business community.

Simply, an independent lender and equipment finance company, was formed in April 2017 in response to the need for innovation and disruption in the asset finance sector. It now employs over 110 people and has provided £650 million of support to more than 4,200 customers since it was founded.

Launched in 2014, the ENABLE Funding programme supports the British Business Bank’s objective to diversify finance markets for smaller UK businesses. Providers of finance to smaller businesses often lack the scale required to access capital markets – a key source of funding for lending institutions – in a cost-efficient manner. The ENABLE Funding programme warehouses newly-originated finance receivables from different originators, bringing them together into a new structure. Once the structure has sufficient scale, it will refinance a portion of its funding on the capital markets, helping small finance providers to tap institutional investors’ funds.

We are proud to work with the British Business Bank and are committed to encouraging a positive change to the market and our customers. Our recently launched digital brand, Simply Connect, enables faster decisions through automated processes and is bringing the next generation of asset finance into the sector. This complements our personalised customer service. We look forward to serving as many SMEs as possible in these unprecedented times. We aim to help them grow and prosper, come rain or shine. Mike Randall CEO of Simply
By partnering with alternative and non-bank lenders like Simply to help close the funding gap, we are enabling smaller businesses across the UK to gain access to finance through a wider offer of funding options. Tackling the problem of diversity of financial provision for small businesses is central to the ENABLE Funding programme, which was developed by the British Business Bank specifically to address this critical issue. Reinald de Monchy Managing Director, Guarantee and Wholesale of the British Business Bank
We have worked with Simply since the very beginning and have witnessed their rapid growth in the past four years. They have a clear vision to enable SMEs across the country to grow and prosper. Simply believe in the potential of their customers and are there for them through good and bad times. The fifth round of British Business Bank funding will help support smaller businesses, entrepreneurs and family businesses to do just that. Richard McDougall Partner at Cabot Square Capital

Further Information

Notes to editors

About Simply

Simply provides finance to small and medium sized businesses in the UK to help them purchase equipment, free up working capital and invest in growth. It was founded in April 2017 by a team of industry specialists, in response to the need for innovation and disruption in the asset finance sector. Simply prides itself on having implemented the most forward-thinking and flexible technology in the sector to enhance its customer-facing proposition, and provide customers with a better, faster, simpler, more efficient service.

Simply has now recruited over 110 of the best people in the industry and attracted more than 4200 customers across a variety of sectors including manufacturing, construction, transport, and recycling. Simply is majority owned by a Cabot Square Capital fund. For more information simply.finance.

About Cabot Square Capital

Founded in 1996, Cabot Square Capital LLP is a leading provider of investment capital for small and mid-sized companies in the UK and Western Europe, with a particular focus on financial services, speciality lending and operating property businesses. It is a hands-on partner able to provide companies with capital for growth and acquisitions, assist management teams to build operations and infrastructure, develop intellectual property and enable strategic, long-term planning.

About British Business Bank

The British Business Bank is the UK government’s economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to drive sustainable growth and prosperity across the UK, and to enable the transition to a net zero economy, by improving access to finance for smaller businesses. Its remit is to design, deliver and efficiently manage UK-wide smaller business access to finance programmes for the UK government.

The British Business Bank’s core programmes support over £8.5 billion 1  of finance to almost 95,000 smaller businesses 2 . The British Business Bank is responsible for running the government’s Coronavirus business loan schemes and Future Fund, together responsible for delivering £80.4 billion of finance to 1.67 million businesses. The schemes are now closed to new applications.

As well as increasing both supply and diversity of finance for UK smaller businesses through its programmes, the Bank works to raise awareness of the finance options available to smaller businesses. The British Business Bank Finance Hub provides independent and impartial information to businesses about their finance options, featuring short films, expert guides, checklists and articles from finance providers to help make their application a success. In light of the coronavirus pandemic and EU Exit, the Finance Hub has expanded and it now targets a wider business audience. It continues to provide information and support for scale-up, high growth and potential high growth businesses, but now provides increased content, information and products for businesses in survival and recovery mindsets. The Finance Hub has been redesigned and repositioned to reflect this, during this period of economic uncertainty.

British Business Bank plc is a public limited company registered in England and Wales, registration number 08616013, registered office at Steel City House, West Street, Sheffield, S1 2GQ. It is a development bank wholly owned by HM Government. British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. They are not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). A complete legal structure chart for the group can be found at british-business-bank.co.uk.

The investment from British Business Bank to Simply does not amount to any endorsement or warranty from the British Business Bank plc, or the government of the UK. The ENABLE Funding Programme is managed by British Business Financial Services Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of British Business Bank plc, on behalf of, and with the financial backing of, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.

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