PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Small Businesses: Finance (7 December 2015)

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the number of small businesses which have received financial assistance from (a) peer-to-peer lenders and (b) other alternative funding sources.

Asked by:
Angela Rayner (Labour)

According to NESTA, peer-to-peer business lending in the UK grew at a rate of 250 per cent annually between 2012 and 2014. The Peer-to-Peer Finance Association publishes quarterly updates, which show net new lending of £251m in the third quarter of 2015 of which £91m was to small businesses. Although the number of businesses is not stated, Funding Circle (which accounts for £66m of the £91m net new lending) had 10,755 borrowers at the end of the quarter. The total is therefore likely to be close to 15,000.

Equity crowdfunded deal numbers and investment totals are less readily available. The British Business Bank cites market investment data recorded by Beauhurst which show that in the first half of 2014, £24m was raised across 101 crowdfunded equity investments. Using survey data, NESTA has produced a higher estimate of £31m for the same period and £84m for 2014 as a whole.

Answered by:
Anna Soubry (The Independent Group for Change)
14 December 2015