HSBC UK expands its Growth Lending fund to £350 million
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HSBC UK shared plans to expand its Growth Lending fund. The fund, which was £250 million large until now, will grow by another £100 million, to a total of £350 million. According to the bank, the decision was made in response to a rapidly growing demand from high-growth tech scale-ups.
The importance of Growth Lending fund
The fund was initially launched only a year ago, in 2022. Its launch was the bank’s response to the UK government’s call for an additional investment in this sector. However, in order to be able to access the funding, scale-ups were required to meet certain conditions. They had to have a proven sales track record, strong equity backing, as well as a very clear path to profitability.
The bank has also set up £15 million in financing, which was set aside to support early-stage growth ambitions.
Apart from the funding, HSBC also said that it will provide businesses with international expertise. The idea is to help them achieve their global ambitions as early in their journey as possible instead of them having to take the slow route and achieve the goals through their own trial and error process.
During the 12-month period after the initial launch of Growth Lending, the fund has managed to provide support to a number of regional economies. According to reports, as much as 50% of deals that were finalized concerned companies outside of London.
Businesses no longer see the necessity to be based in London
HSBC UK’s head of the tech sector and growth lending, Roland Emmans, commented on the bank’s decision to expand the fund. He noted that the increase to Growth Lending restates HSBC UK’s commitment to improving the tech ecosystem. Doing so will also ensure that the UK remains one of the best locations in the world for launching and running a technology-related company.
Emmans also added that one of the most interesting details that were noticed was the fact that half the firms that Growth Lending has helped were not based in London. To him, this demonstrates that ambitious digital technology businesses no longer feel that it is essential to be based in the UK capital. Instead, they are tapping into talent pools around the UK.
HSBC said that it hopes to continue to expand the fund in the future. The bank noted that it was able to observe dynamism among tech scale-ups in recent years, and that it believes that this will continue to develop in years to come. With that said, the current 100 million GBP boost to the fund should also be taken as a demonstration of HSBC’s ongoing commitment to the sector.