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Creative Growth Finance accredited as delivery partner under the British Business Bank’s Growth Guarantee Scheme

Press release 28 April 2025

  • Creative Growth Finance (CGF) is Creative UK’s specialist £35m debt fund providing growth capital to high-potential businesses in the UK’s creative sector
  • CGF supports smaller businesses in gaming, film and television, marketing, design and more with loans from £100k to £1m
  • Traditional funding routes can sometimes overlook creative businesses due to their lack of tangible assets and because they tend to be Intellectual Property-led.

The British Business Bank today announces the accreditation of Creative Growth Finance as a delivery partner under the Growth Guarantee Scheme.

Creative Growth Finance (CGF) is Creative UK’s specialist £35m debt fund, which provides growth capital to high-potential smaller businesses in the UK’s creative sector.

The Growth Guarantee Scheme will enhance CGF’s ability to support creative businesses, allowing them to offer more flexible financing solutions, and provide more smaller businesses in the creative industries with access to the funding they need to scale and succeed.

CGF supports smaller businesses across different creative sectors, including gaming, film and television, marketing, design and more, with loans ranging from £100k up to £1m.

The CGF fund was created in 2019 to address the unique funding challenges faced by creative businesses.

As confirmed by a recent report from Creative UK and the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, benchmarked against the SME Finance Monitor survey, creative organisations are on average four times more likely to face obstacles in accessing the finance needed to grow.

This is partly because traditional funding routes can sometimes overlook creative businesses, which are driven by Intellectual Property rather than tangible assets. Creative Growth Finance bridges this gap, offering investment and strategic support to help creative smaller businesses scale, build resilience, and achieve long-term success.

The UK’s creative industries are an economic powerhouse, growing 1.5 times faster than the economy as a whole, and have been identified by the Government as a priority sector for its forthcoming Industrial Strategy.

Creative UK was established in 2021 by bringing Creative England and the Creative Industries Federation together and aims to use creativity to shape the UK’s social, cultural, and economic future.

Creative UK is the national membership body for the cultural and creative industries. The team is based across the UK, and works closely with Local and Combined Authorities to support creative talent, whilst delivering hands-on support and investment, including the Creative Growth Finance investment fund, run in partnership with Triodos Bank.

The British Business Bank’s support to UK creative businesses was worth around £850m in the calendar year 2023. This represents around 11% of the total UK flow across the Bank’s core programmes, more than the share of the wider creative and cultural sector in both the UK business population (10%) and in terms of GVA (6-7%).

Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, said:

At home and abroad, our world-class creative industries are growing economically as much as they are in popularity. I want to see even more growth, putting more money in people’s pockets.

This accreditation from the British Business Bank will unlock millions of pounds in financing for the sector – a sector we have prioritised as a key growth driver in our industrial strategy as part of our Plan for Change - helping it continue to go from strength to strength, breaking down the barriers to expansion some creative industries face, and supporting them to find the funding they need to scale and grow.

Reinald de Monchy, Co-Chief Banking Officer, British Business Bank, said:

Creative industries is one of the Industrial Strategy growth-driving sectors, and as the UK’s economic development bank, we are central to the government’s growth mission and are already part of the engine room of the modern industrial strategy.

The accreditation of Creative Growth Finance under the Growth Guarantee Scheme demonstrates our further commitment to the UK’s creative sector. The creative industries are not only a major contributor to the UK economy but also provide tremendous cultural value at home and abroad.

Caroline Norbury OBE, Chief Executive of Creative UK, said:

We are delighted to be working with the British Business Bank in support of our landmark fund, Creative Growth Finance, delivered in partnership with Triodos Bank. The Creative Industries are bursting with potential - already growing at 1.5 times the rate of the wider economy, despite known challenges in accessing finance.

For too long, many creative SMEs have been held back by a disproportionate - and often over-inflated - risk profile associated with funding IP, which is the bread and butter of the sector. We know firsthand the value of investing in ideas: our portfolio companies are exceeding benchmarks, with productivity at twice the national average, and revenues increasing by an average of 75% per year. In backing our fund, the British Business Bank are supporting the sector to keep growing, and providing a huge boost to the creative economy.

Further Information

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Notes to editors

About the 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 £17.4bn 1  of finance to almost 64,000 2  smaller businesses.

As well as increasing the supply and diversity of finance for UK smaller businesses through its programmes, the Bank works to raise awareness of finance options available to smaller businesses. The British Business Bank Finance Hub provides independent and impartial information to businesses about finance options, featuring short films, expert guides, checklists and articles from finance providers to help make their application a success.

The British Business Bank is also responsible for administering the government’s three Coronavirus loan schemes and its Future Fund, together responsible for delivering £80.4bn in finance to 1.67m businesses. These schemes are now closed to new applications.

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. Wholly owned by HM government, the Bank 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). BBB Patient Capital Advisory Services Limited is an appointed representative of Langham Hall Fund Management LLP, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority of the UK.

A complete legal structure chart for the group and details of each subsidiary and the programme(s) it operates (where applicable) can be found at british-business-bank.co.uk.

About Creative UK

Creative UK is the national membership body for the Cultural and Creative Industries. We exist to champion creativity in its widest form - representing world-leading organisations from sectors as diverse as advertising, animation, architecture, broadcasting, crafts, design, digital, education, fashion, games, heritage, museums, music, performing arts, photography, publishing, theatre, TV, visual art and more. 

We are an independent not-for-profit, which uses the insight and experience of our members, partners and the businesses we work with to help shape relevant government policy and advocate for meaningful social and economic change right across the UK.

Our vision is a world where creativity is valued and recognised as the driving force for our future. We’re so passionate about this that we put our money where our mouth is: through own landmark investment funds, we’ve directly invested millions of pounds into creative businesses over the last decade. 

Our team is based across the UK, and we work closely with Local and Combined Authorities to support creative talent, whilst delivering hands-on support – spanning business diagnostics, mentoring and investment readiness.

Our Filming in England service is a dedicated and bespoke production service to feature film and high-end TV productions looking to film in England, outside of London. 

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