Funding Links

For assistance in finding suitable grant or support schemes it is worth contacting Herefordshire and Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce on 0845 641 1641 or Business Link on 0845 113 1234. The advisors there will be able to help with your specific requirements and will know about forthcoming schemes which may help you.

Websites with information on possible funding opportunities for businesses can be found in this section. The sites are summarised below:

West Midlands Access to Finance
There is a range of grants and assistance available for businesses in the West Midlands, via national and local schemes, but they often depend on geographic location, requirement and business sector. Advantage West Midlands has established the West Midlands Access to Finance website to provide a comprehensive regional database of financing for West Midlands SMEs. This site is designed to help small growing companies and start-ups to find the most suitable finance for them. It provides information and advice on obtaining the different types of finance, as well as a searchable database of grants, asset finance and cash flow finance providers, venture capitalists, business angel networks, banks, cash awards and soft loans available to SMEs in the West Midlands. It is free to use - all you have to do is register on the website.

Advantage Business Angels
Venture capital consortium focusing on small UK businesses. The Advantage Business Angels Consortium is a venture capitalist company providing funding for small businesses in UK. It was formed in November of 2002 and consists of:

• The Business Angels Bureau - the lead contractor for the Consortium. BAB holds the contracts for the consortium and provides the management and operations infrastructure. BAB has a long and successful track record raising money for early stage businesses.
• University of Warwick Science Park - the technology specialist within the Consortium. UWSP has world class strengths in the nurturing and development of technology based businesses.
• Herefordshire and Worcestershire Business Link provide the interface to the regional Business Links to enable a seamless service to be provided to early stage businesses.
• National Business Angels Network - the National body for business angel work. Charged by the DTI with setting up national standards to help the development of the angel market in the UK.

If you are interested in venture capital funding or want to make venture capital investments then check their website.

Advantage Community Loan Fund
The Local Investment Fund (LIF) makes loans to social and community enterprises who have been unable to secure funds from traditional sources. By providing loan finance, LIF enables community organisations to move from grant dependency and towards self-sufficiency. The Advantage Community Loan Fund (ACLF) provides loan finance for economically viable, community-based organisations that are run as 'not-for-profit' enterprises in the West Midlands region. Loans are from £15,000 to £85,000.

Advantage Creative Fund
The £5 million Advantage Creative Fund is a new, region-wide venture capital investment fund set up specifically to help creative businesses in the West Midlands to grow. ACF operates like any other venture capital fund, investing for a commercial return, but it is non-profit distributing, directing its profits into new investments so that it will continue to support more creative businesses indefinitely.

Advantage Early Growth Fund
The £5m Advantage Early Growth Fund is a region-wide, venture capital co-investment fund set up with UK Government capital to assist early stage, West Midlands based, businesses with growth potential. It matches risk capital provided by business angels or other private sector investors on THE SAME TERMS.

Advantage Enterprise and Innovation Fund
The AEIF is a £20m private equity fund established in 2005 to provide capital for expanding businesses. Investors in the fund include Advantage West Midlands and The European Regional Development Fund. Catapult Venture Managers Limited manages the Fund and aims to make commercial equity investments in small and medium sized companies throughout the West Midlands.

Advantage Growth Fund
The Advantage Growth Fund is a £20 million Fund established with funding from the Small Business Service (Dti), the European Investment Fund, Barclays Bank, the Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC, the universities of Warwick, Coventry, Aston, Birmingham and Central England and Millpoint West Ltd (a subsidiary of Midven). The purpose of the Fund is to provide venture capital to small to medium sized enterprises located in the West Midlands region. Typically, it will invest in young, well managed businesses with high growth potential.
The fund can provide venture capital investment of up to £250,000 in any one company at any one time. It can provide further venture capital to existing investee companies providing the total investment in any one company does not exceed £500,000.

Advantage Proof of Concept Fund
The background of the Spinner initiative is to help address the "spin-out gap" - due to a lack of resources within the universities to pursue "pre-seedcorn" activities. The main objective of Spinner is to create 40 spin-off companies by 2010, generated and shared between eight universities. It will achieve this by providing two types of grants to help potential businesses develop - Pathfinder Grants, usually up to £15,000, for pre-formation activities, and Accelerator Grants, typically up to £50,000, to support businesses following their formation.

Advantage Transition Bridge Fund
ATBF has been set up on the initiative of the West Midlands professional community to help support businesses severely affected by MG Rover going into administration. It is a not for profit organisation whose members and directors are drawn from major banks and professional firms and it has received funding from Advantage West Midlands and the Department of Trade and Industry.
The fund provides loan finance of up to £500,000 to viable businesses which require additional finance in the short to medium term to enable them to respond to the MG Rover situation. Loans from the fund will be available to suppliers and dealers facing financial difficulty as a result of the MG Rover situation and having a viable recovery plan but insufficient finance from normal sources to implement it. The loans are for up to three years, dependent on the requirements of the recovery plan.

Bridges Community Ventures
Bridges Community Ventures is the UK's first community development venture capital company, established to invest by buying shares in ambitious businesses in the most under-invested parts of England. In Herefordshire these are parts of South Hereford city and some parts of North Herefordshire - check your postcode on the website.

Innovation Networks
The Innovation Networks programme encourages collaboration between small and medium sized companies, with each contributing its own specialist knowledge, expertise or technology.
Projects should:

• Benefit the West Midlands regional economy
• Develop an innovative new product, process or service
• Cost at least £26,000 in total (including the cost of staff time).

If approved, a grant of £10,000 is available, paid in two instalments, one at the beginning and the other at the end of the project.
Applicant must be within the Objective 2 area and also have partnership with at least 2 small and/or medium sized enterprises (SMEs) who are also based in an objective 2 area in the West Midlands.

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
The Department of Trade and Industry and the University of Gloucestershire are working together to create Knowledge Transfer Partnerships by providing grants to allow high calibre graduates to work in small to medium sized companies on strategic projects. The following are example types of projects:

• Developing and implementing new management processes and support systems
• Designing and developing a state-of-the-art, web-based, integrated portal for supply purchasing
• Implementing a corporate ERP system
• Designing and implementing a marketing strategy to develop new routes to market
• Designing and evaluating e-learning packages

Rabbit Broadband
Many companies in remote areas do not have the ability to connect to ADSL or Cable modems - since the infrastructure for these is expensive for providers to install or the company may be more than 5.5km from their exchange. Rabbit can contribute to the cost of alternative broadband connections as part of a project to evaluate their future use.