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The UK is one of the easiest (and best) places in the world to start a business. Seed capital has never been more plentiful, from SEIS/EIS angels to crowdfunding platforms and accelerator programmes. At the other end of the journey, mature, de-risked companies can tap buyout funds, infrastructure investors and public markets. But in between those two poles lies a stubborn problem. If you're building a scale-up (a business already growing at scale and looking to expand revenue

Most of our clients live in that world already, with 20-50% growth typical (and yes, some go well beyond that). But if you think that’s a comfortable place to be, you’d be wrong. Sustaining that level of growth while  maintaining enough cash is incredibly hard. And ironically, that growth still isn’t fast enough for most VCs - so their doors stay shut. Banks won’t even pick up the phone. I understand the VCs’ logic: they already have companies growing faster in their portf

At Nighthawk, our mission has always been to back ambitious companies with the capital structures they need to scale. Today, we’re proud...

AI is outperforming Google search in core functionality. It likely needs to pivot to be pure AI search. But history suggests pivoting is hard...

https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/nighthawk-and-arena-investors-lp-launch-venture-lending-platform-to-support-uk-innovation-econ...

Executive Summary Most of the venture debt industry relies on " sponsors " when making loans - a VC firm that has invested heavily in the...

Crossing the chasm In his seminal book, Crossing the Chasm , Geoffrey Moore explores how products that have strong appeal with...

Raising funds As one of the first – if not the  first – institution to fund the tech SMEs we work with, we're often asked for advice on...

Featured new deals Porotech , the world’s most advanced microLED and optical computing company, is our largest venture debt done to...

The traditional view is that venture capital helps early stage companies with debt funding used once the company is profitable. The...

Back in May of last year, we helped finance Future Forest's planting of 340,000 trees at Dumyat in Scotland.

Capital Drought or Passing Showers? Navigating the stormy seas of the growth ecosystem, the first half of 2023 sees us caught in even...

With First Citizens bank taking over the US assets of SVB in the United States, and HSBC having taken over the UK assets, Silicon Valley...

The FT article above summarises the issue well. SVB was a victim of its own success. Having attracted so many startups and VCs, it...

The team sees an exceptional number of UK tech start-ups every month. In February, this meant talking to over 100 start-ups for the...

Jeremy Hunt's budget significantly reduced the amount SMEs can claim back in R&D Tax Relief, which will impact the fastest growing part...

It’s been a busy week with no fewer than three tech conferences hosted last week: VivaTech in Paris London Tech Week CogX Festival in...

We held a round table yesterday, generously hosted by Optimal Compliance, with a mix of start-ups, investors and partners yesterday. ...

Savings, Angel Investors, Venture Capitalists, Venture Debt - what to get when (& a bit about how) So let's start with a very busy chart...