The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has given an undisclosed amount of funding to lending provider B-North to support SMEs in the region.
Funding for B-North, currently in the process of gaining a banking licence, was announced at an investor event last week.
The lending provider said it will be used to help Manchester businesses access much needed debt capital quickly and effectively.
Jonathan Thompson, co-founder of B-North, said: “Together with the GMCA, B-North will provide access to essential lending to facilitate the growth of SMEs within the northern economy.
“There are 5.6m small businesses operating in the UK, comprising 61 per cent of the UK workforce.
“That’s an integral part of the UK economy, which we anticipate will only increase as the UK’s relationship with the EU evolves and we become more reliant on home-grown enterprise.”
According to an IPPR report in February 2019, 99.8 per cent of north of England businesses have fewer than 250 employees.
Mr Thompson continued: “The northern powerhouse already contributes significantly and is an essential part of the UK’s identity.
“At B-North, we will offer tailored cloud-based banking and flexible support through an unrivalled product set, which will allow SMEs to remain competitive in this new era of business.”
With the funding, B-North will also launch the first of its ‘lending pods’ in Manchester, which will then be rolled out to major cities in the UK.
Each pod will contain people experienced in the lending needs of SMEs, including underwriters with discretion to sanction facilities locally and an in-house valuer, B-North said.
All loan applications will be managed locally and customers will have access to the local teams and resource in the B-North head office.
This localised model will allow lending to be made available to SMEs within as little as 10 working days, where with traditional banks, requests for loans can take three to four months to be delivered, B-North said.
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, who was guest speaker at the launch event, said there needed to be improved “access to finance for our start-ups, our scale-ups and particularly our SMEs”.
He said: “It’s really encouraging that B-North will focus on these businesses, which often struggle to get bigger investment funding and the money needed to take them to the next level.
“We have to provide that level of finance as a city-region if we’re to fulfil our economic ambitions, and it’s why the GMCA is so pleased to be investing in B-North.”
