Liverpool-based loan and equity provider, MSIF launched the Finance Hub in June 2017 with the aim of helping finance-seeking SMEs become ‘investment ready’. Tony McDonough reports
Liverpool business loan and equity provider MSIF has helped more than 650 businesses with advice on finance through its free Finance Hub service since last summer.
MSIF launched the Finance Hub in June 2017 with the aim of helping SMEs become “investment ready”.
The support includes, but is not limited to, critiquing business plans, producing financial forecasts, introducing alternative funders, and referring clients on to the Local Growth Hub and other support organisations.
Business have been referred to the hub via 75 different providers such as banks or other business support agencies. The free service is open to all and is not restricted to clients of MSIF.
It decided to launch the service after more than two decades of working with SMEs and recognising that many who were in need of financial support, were not always ready to pitch to the potential funding sources.
Not all of the 650-plus businesses that have used the hub will have necessarily secured funding afterwards but it would give them a clearer idea of their position and get them ready to approach potential funders.
One Liverpool-based business, Cemos, needed funding of £150,000 for growth purposes, and needed solid forecasts to be successful in their applications for this funding. The firm is a cloud-based digital platform developer that creates mobile applications that are tailored for health, fitness and wellbeing.
Chris Mitchell, director of Cemos, met with an expert at the MSIF Finance Hub, George Wright, to work on his forecasts and ensure they were ready to be presented to funding providers. The forecasts were used to test whether the business would still be investment ready if various sensitised scenarios became reality.
At the end of the process Cemos applied for funding and received an offer of £150,000 of equity funding from MSIF.
For more information on the MSIF Finance Hub click here.