Business funding in Birmingham
How Birmingham businesses use business finance
We arrange finance from £10,000 upwards for Birmingham businesses, through our panel of UK lenders. In much of the city a lender looks at the workshop as much as the till: a press or a CNC machine can secure its own finance, and an industrial unit can secure a mortgage. The Bullring and Digbeth end of the city looks completely different, and gets priced completely differently.
What we see from Birmingham businesses
Birmingham gives us a broader sector mix than most cities. Retail around the Bullring and city centre runs on high card volume and daily footfall. Hospitality and independents around Digbeth look similar.
Then there's the Jewellery Quarter, which is its own animal. Makers and jewellers often sell a mix of retail and trade, and the trade side invoices rather than takes cards. A lender that sizes on the whole business rather than the card takings sees both the shop counter and the trade ledger of a Jewellery Quarter workshop. We set out what each set of published criteria makes of the numbers before anything goes to a lender.
Service businesses come up a lot here too: salons and clinics recruiting and training staff while trade is quiet.
The West Midlands has a lot of trades and light manufacturing that invoice rather than take cards.
Funding types, and how Birmingham businesses use them
| Funding type | Typically used by | How it is sized |
|---|---|---|
| Asset finance | Presses, CNC machines, vans and plant for Black Country engineering | On the price and age of the machine |
| Invoice finance | Subcontractors and wholesalers waiting 30 to 60 days to be paid | On the debtor book and its terms |
Each lender publishes its own timescale, and they change. The lender assesses every case on its own numbers.
Where we work in the West Midlands
Everything happens by phone and email, so there's no difference between a Digbeth cafe and a Dudley trade counter as far as the process goes. We work with businesses across Birmingham city centre, Solihull, Wolverhampton, Dudley and the rest of the West Midlands.
We work with UK limited companies and LLPs only, for business and commercial purposes.
What decides a Birmingham case
Unsecured pricing runs across a wide span, and that is the honest answer. Where a West Midlands firm lands inside it turns on trading history, sector and whether there is an asset to lend against.
Two criteria decide more Birmingham cases than the credit file does: whether a lender needs the director to own a home, which matters in a city where a lot of directors rent, and how long the business has traded. Each lender draws both lines for itself.
On the asset side the useful criteria are narrower and more practical. Each asset lender publishes whether it will defer the VAT on a machine purchase, which keeps roughly a fifth of the invoice out of the day-one cash cost, and whether it will fund older machinery rather than insisting on new. Second-hand presses and lathes change hands constantly around here, and that second criterion is the one that decides whether a deal happens at all.
Criteria vary from lender to lender and describe what a lender will consider, not an offer.
The panel behind this page
We have access to a range of UK commercial finance lenders through our principal, White Rose Finance Group Limited. Some of them write unsecured business loans. Lenders set different criteria on trading history, seasonality and credit history, and each lender makes its own decision.
We check each lender’s published criteria first, and your case goes only to lenders whose requirements it meets. How a case is checked against criteria is set out on our how we work page.
Birmingham funding questions
Can I get business funding in Birmingham with bad credit?
Each lender sets its own view of adverse credit; the age of the mark, whether it is satisfied and the explanation all matter. An asset lender has the kit itself to fall back on, and asset and unsecured lenders draw their adverse credit lines in different places; each lender decides.
How long does funding take for a Birmingham business?
Each lender sets its own timing. A machine on hire purchase takes time, because someone has to see an invoice from the dealer and, on used plant, often a valuation. Having three to six months of statements and the supplier quote ready removes the most common wait.
Do you arrange finance for trades and manufacturing businesses in the West Midlands?
Yes. Factory plant, construction plant and vans are mainstream asset finance, with the machine as the lender's security. Where the money arrives as invoices on 30 or 60-day terms, invoice finance reads the debtor book rather than the till takings.
Which lenders fund Birmingham retail and hospitality?
Commercial mortgage lenders set their appetite by property type, so a shop near the Bullring and a bar in Digbeth are each read against different published criteria. We check them before anything is sent.
How is CapExpand paid?
We will receive commission from lenders. Different lenders pay different amounts depending on different commission models. For transparency we work with varying commission models including fixed fee, fixed rate of commission and percentage of the amount you borrow. Further details of the commission model, calculation and amount will be disclosed to you throughout your customer journey. You are never obliged to accept an offer. Funding is subject to status and the lender's own checks.
Do you work with sole traders in Birmingham?
No. We arrange finance for UK limited companies and LLPs only, so we cannot take a sole trader or partnership enquiry forward.
Start a Birmingham finance enquiry
Two minutes on the form, then a call from the named case handler who will run it. Enquiring does not affect your credit score. If you apply to a lender, it runs its own credit search, which may be recorded on your file. We read your figures against what each lender publishes and put the case only to the lenders whose published criteria it meets, once you have said so. A named person calls you back within one working day.
Start the formOther cities we cover in West Midlands: Coventry, Stoke-on-Trent, Wolverhampton.
Firms in Birmingham that invoice other businesses on terms have their own page: invoice finance in Birmingham.
CapExpand Ltd (FRN 1060885) is a credit broker and an Appointed Representative of White Rose Finance Group Limited (FRN 630772), which is directly authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. We are a broker, not a lender. We work with UK limited companies and LLPs only, for business and commercial purposes. We do not provide financial advice.