First green finance marketplace for SMEs launched by Funding Options

Helping small businesses to finance green initiatives, from solar panels to investing in cleaner vehicles.

Funding Options is to debut the UK’s first green finance marketplace for small businesses, helping them to finance investments in ‘green assets’ like solar panels.

Lenders including Swishfund and Cambridge & Counties Bank are joining Funding Option’s green lending panel to support those businesses making green investments.

“As the green finance market for SMEs matures, there will be greater opportunities to support a wider range of businesses by offering lower product pricing to ‘green’ SMEs in order to encourage them to become more sustainable,” said Funding Options CEO Simon Cureton, announcing the marketplace.

“Our own wider sustainability policy and commitment is to play a leading role helping to drive environmental and social governance in the alternative lending market, while at the same time promoting a broader choice of competitive green finance options for our customers.”

Lenders are also increasingly looking to be matched with borrowers with strong environmental credentials, those which are operating low or zero-carbon business models.

This demand is so that they can achieve ESG compliance, which asset and fund managers are increasingly considering when offering credit lines to lenders.

Funding Options’ move to connect green lenders with environmentally-conscious small businesses appears to be a win-win for both parties.

“Since people usually pay attention to only what is directly in front of them, it is incumbent on all businesses to keep green initiatives at a prominent place in their shopfronts, their offerings, and in their brands,” said Andrew Jackson, managing director of Swishfund.

“Swishfund believes that commercial success and environmental responsibility can be happy bedfellows. We believe that within 20 years from now environmental and social responsibility will be a prerequisite for commercial success, and Funding Options will have been at the forefront of that trend.”