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All Posts

Export finance for UK SMEs: how our UKEF partnership removes the capital barrier to international growth

The UK produces extraordinary businesses. Companies with strong products, genuine global demand, and the ambition to take on new markets. But there's a persistent problem that shows up at exactly the wrong moment. When a business is ready to scale internationally, when the export opportunity is real and the pipeline is live capital becomes the bottleneck. Working capital tightens. Payment cycles stretch. And traditional lenders, built for a different kind of business, struggl

3 days ago

Nighthawk Partners Announces Partnership with UK Export Finance to Unlock New Funding Pathways for UK SMEs

London, UK - Monday 23 March 2026 Nighthawk Partners, the UK’s leading early- and mid-stage multi-product lender, has announced a strategic partnership with UK Export Finance (UKEF) aimed at significantly expanding access to export funding for innovative small and medium-sized businesses across the UK. The partnership will enable Nighthawk to deliver new export-focused financing solutions designed specifically for high-growth SMEs looking to scale internationally but facing

4 days ago

De-coding the UK’s Gender Funding Gap

Introduction With International Women’s Day celebrations and events taking place throughout the month, March is a great time to reflect on both the progress that’s been made in supporting female entrepreneurship as well as the barriers that remain. Despite the growing number of women founding innovative companies, access to capital continues to be one of the biggest challenges facing female founders. The statistics are well known. In the UK, only around 2% of equity inve

Mar 10

Serving the underserved

Banks want to see trading history, predictable revenue, and tangible assets. Instead, early-stage businesses may have R&D pipelines, grant backing, and product roadmaps. That mismatch is why most innovative firms can't access the capital they need to scale. Small and medium-sized enterprises account for 60% of UK employment and generate £2.8 trillion in turnover. Despite this importance, SMEs – especially those led by underserved groups – still struggle to find appropriate fi

Feb 16

Mind the scale-up gap: why UK SMEs still face a funding valley of death

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

Jan 29

Imagine a world where companies grow 30% a year

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

Nov 18, 2025