Former director general of the CBI and Minister of State for UK Trade & Investment Lord Digby Jones has lent his patronage to the launch of a peer to peer funding network and business club for manufactures in the Black Country.
More than 60 delegates from the Black Country attended Ludgate Finance’s Go4Growth Business Club launch event in the Jack Haywood Suite at Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Molineux Stadium.
Introducing Go4Growth, Lord Jones talked about the challenges that small businesses face in funding growth and the challenges in the sector as a whole.
Ludgate Finance experts then clarified the important role they feel peer-to-peer lending could have in breaking down these challenges and opening up opportunities.
Go4Growth is designed to help manufacturing and engineering businesses understand and access peer-to-peer funding, however Ludgate says the club’s ambitions go beyond raising finance.
A series of workshops and other events in the wake of the launch of Go4Growth will offer value add to employers according to the finance firm.
These workshops will be delivered in partnership with representatives from Trade & Export Finance, Crowe Clark Whitehill, Harrison Goddard Foote LLP, and Urica among others.
Ludgate has successfully raised over 20million of funding for 100 growing businesses in the last two years.
Demand for finance is growing in the SME sector and with banks appearing reluctant to support growth; the peer to peer sector is now providing much needed support for entrepreneurial businesses.
Richard Mason from Ludgate Finance said: “Getting a manufacturing or engineering business off the ground is something to be proud of.
“But once it is up and running, making sure that it keeps growing can be even more challenging, particularly where capital investment is required in advance of growth and profitability.
“This is why we have launched this new business club, which will offer support, advice and networking sessions to keep manufacturing and engineering firms on the front foot when it comes to growth and expansion.”
For more information on Go4Growth visit www.ludgatefinance.co.uk
