UK business funding, explained before you apply
Compare business loans, asset finance, invoice finance and grants for your next growth project. See why each route may fit, what it could really cost and what to prepare.
Where, how much, what for and by when. Skip what you don’t know: unknowns stay unknown.
Fit-out, equipment and opening costs are different problems. Each part meets the funding that suits it.
Net cash, monthly pressure and total cost on the same amount, with every assumption shown.
Pick a named provider and see exactly what is sent, before anything is.
Each route solves a different problem. A good plan never forces the whole project into the most expensive one.
Most common
A lump sum repaid over a fixed term. Suits a refit, a second site or any project with a clear payback.
Secured on the asset
Spread the cost of machinery, vehicles or equipment, secured on the asset itself.
For B2B sellers
Release cash tied up in invoices your business customers haven’t paid yet.
Not repaid
Money you don’t repay, for a set project, place or sector. Rarely fast, never guaranteed.
Borrow £50,000 at a factor rate of 1.20 and you repay £60,000 in 126 working-day payments of £476.19. The fee looks like 20%, but you only hold the money for six shrinking months.
What a 1.20 factor rate looks like
Effective annual rate from 126 business-day payments over six months. A fee taken at drawdown would push it higher. Decode your own offer
Move anything. Every figure recalculates on the spot from stated assumptions, never from a guess.
Second site · £120,000
IllustrationGrants are searched but never counted until awarded. Assumed rates: asset finance 9.5%, term loan 11%, revolving facility 14% APR; invoice finance 1.2% of funded invoices a month.
Each provider card shows its source and the date we checked it, which criteria you meet, miss or haven’t answered, and whether we may be paid.
| Month | Term loan | Asset | Facility | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month 1 | £1,950 | £1,047 | £1,609 | £4,606 |
| Month 2 | £1,950 | £1,047 | £1,609 | £4,606 |
| Month 3 | £1,950 | £1,047 | £1,609 | £4,606 |
| Month 4 | £1,950 | £1,047 | £1,609 | £4,606 |
| Month 5 | £1,950 | £1,047 | £1,609 | £4,606 |
| Month 6 | £1,950 | £1,047 | £1,609 | £4,606 |
If a 20% sales dip cut an assumed £19,000 monthly surplus to £15,500 for three months, these payments would take 30% of it instead of 24%.
Send me funding news (optional, separate from this request)
Examples: a second café, a CNC router, three electric vans, Christmas stock, two new chefs, a shop refit, buying out a partner, solar on the unit roof and a bigger kitchen.
Our first guides are being reviewed. Visit the guides page
We are a comparison and introduction service, not a lender and not a government body. Your fit comes from what you tell us and each provider’s published criteria, checked against a dated source. When a price is unknown we say so. Commission never enters the order of your results.
Fit and your own priority decide the order. A provider’s payment to us never does.
We never invent approval odds, rates or deadlines. Our AI explains verified results; it never produces them.
No provider sees a thing until you choose one and confirm exactly what is sent.
Still unsure? Ask us directly.
No. The Navigator works only from what you type in, and we make no credit search. If you later ask a provider for a quote, they tell you whether they will run a soft or a hard search before they do.
It depends on the rate and the term. At an illustrative 12% APR over one year, repayments are about £4,428 a month with £3,137 of interest in total. Over five years at 10% APR they are about £1,052 a month, with £13,107 of interest.
A factor rate multiplies what you borrow: 1.20 on £50,000 means repaying £60,000 however quickly you repay. An APR states the cost per year. Repaid daily over six months, that 1.20 works out at roughly 111% a year.
Many unsecured business loans ask directors for one, which makes you personally liable if the business can’t repay. Each provider card states whether a guarantee or other security is required, wherever the provider publishes it.
Neither. We are an independent comparison and introduction service. Lenders make every lending decision, and the word “Council” in our name does not mean any public or official status.
Some providers pay us when a business we introduced receives funding. That payment never changes the order of your results, and every provider card says whether it applies. Exploring and comparing are free.
Describe what you want to fund. Your plan opens straight away, and we only ask for an email if you want to save it.