Funding Xchange, Onfido and Fractal Labs among the BCR £20m small grant winners

The first awardees of British Competitions Remedies (BCR) Pool E fund were revealed this morning, with £5m and £2.5m grants awarded to six fintechs.

Among the £2.5m grant winners were Fractal Labs and Untied, Codat,Ezbob, and Previse, while for the larger £5m grants Funding Xchange and Onfido took the top awards.

“It has been really encouraging to see that, despite the challenging economic environment, this Pool has attracted a large number of diverse and innovative organisations that are making strong progress in meeting the needs of UK SMEs,” said Aidene Walsh, lead director on the BCR’s Capability and Innovation Fund.

The BCR said it received a total of 92 applications from 67 applicants in the first stage of Pool E, which covered just £20m of the total £100m Pool.

“All successful applicants have demonstrated a clear vision for how they will deliver on their business proposition by December 2022 and provide agile and enduring products and services to the SME market”.

Next month the remaining £80m will be awarded through two £10m, one £25m and one £35m grant, with awardees due to be announced during the week of 21 September.

Among the names missing out this morning were Coconut and Sonovate, both disclosed they had filed £5m Pool E bids but neither managed to secure funding.

Both Trade Finance Global and Trade Ledger revealed they had made bids, but it’s unclear whether the duo may have been bidding for the larger grants still to be awarded.

Here are the awardees and open bidders as they stand:

Bidding for larger grants (£10-35m) 

• Starling Bank looking to raise up to £35m with two new BCR grants

• Tide and ClearBank join the race for £25-£35m slice of Pool E

• Cashplus enters the running with £35m BCR bid to rival Tide and Starling Bank

• Payments provider Contis enters the running with dual £10m and £25m BCR bids

• Assetz Capital reveals itself as twelfth fintech looking for a slice of the £100m Pool E BCR fund

• Curve puts itself in the running for slice of £100m Pool E BCR fund

Smaller grants awarded (£2.5-5m) 

• Fractal Labs and Untied

   (£2.5m)

• Codat (£2.5m)

• Ezbob (£2.5m)

• Previse (£2.5m)

• Funding Xchange

  (£5m)

• Onfido (£5m)

Bidding, but unclear for which grant size 

• Trade Ledger and Equifax

• Trade Finance Global aims to enhance its tech with BCR bid

Know of any other BCR Pool E bids? Let us know.