A new website has been launched by a group of six agencies in the South West who provide finance to small and medium sized businesses in the region.
The website is described as a ‘web portal’ as it opens the door to information and provides links to the funding available through the different partners, who between them cover the whole of the South West region.
The finance is in the form of loans, up to a possible £50,000, and is specifically targeted at those businesses that have potential but need more funding than their bank can lend for start-up or growth.
Visitors to the site can find out about funding available, make an online enquiry, or click on links to their nearest agency.
“Over the last few years there have been a range of business support initiatives in the region, in part stimulated by European and central government funding”, explained Peter Casey of South West Investment Group. “What we are doing here is helping to simplify the information and make our collective funds more accessible to businesses that need our support.”
The collaboration is supported by the South West Regional Development Agency, whose Business Finance Programme Manager, Robin Edwards commented; “This partnership approach to simplifying business support is one the South West RDA fully endorses as it makes access to information so much easier for businesses on the ground and will help them unlock their potential. Now, rather than having to search for funding and possibly in time find all six individual agency websites, people can now go to one single site straight away for the information they need.”
The agencies involved in the project are South West Investment Group, the Centre for Employment and Enterprise Development, Bristol Enterprise Development Fund, Enterprise Plymouth, Gloucestershire Development Loan Fund and Wessex Reinvestment Society.