Official figures released recently showed that the top five UK high street banks undershot the £76billion Project Merlin lending target by just over £1billion; anyone who is running a business knows what a struggle it can be to get working capital.

MarketInvoice was founded around the revolutionary idea that there are better ways to fund a small business than simply relying on the whims of your local high street bank. We get cashflow to businesses by giving them a platform to quickly sell their outstanding invoices to a network of institutional investors & wealthy individuals online; and looking around we see there are plenty of other innovative methods of business financing out there.

The Next Generation Finance Consortium (NGFC) has been established to provide advice and support to businesses looking for new ways to find finance – whether disruptive, high tech alternatives to traditional finance like MarketInvoice, or more established methods such as credit unions.

In these challenging economic times, we want to give SMEs the advice they need to grow their businesses and help Britain on the road to economic recovery. We know that by bringing all of these sources of finance together, we can make these different methods of finance easier for business owners to discover and access.

In addition to bringing all of the different financing options together in one place, by banding together as an industry, we can liaise with & lobby Government on behalf of our customers. We are keen to hear from business owners what they see as the gaps are in the provision of funding, so we can rise to the challenge of meeting those needs.

Events will be organised for entrepreneurs to network – finding out more about the options that best suit their needs and discussing their experiences with other like-minded entrepreneurs who have successfully raised finance by an alternative means.

The next generation firms that created and guide the Next Generation Finance Consortium include: MarketInvoice, Capital Enterprise, Crowdcube, People fund it, Community Development Finance Association, Angel Capital Group and North London Community Finance.

To find out more about the Next Generation Finance Consortium or register for the launch event on 8th March click here