Brighton, Hove and Sussex

Business loans and finance in Brighton

Brighton and Hove runs on small firms: 2,635 professional and technical businesses, 1,765 in information and communication and 1,185 in food and accommodation, out of 13,785 in all (ONS, March 2025). Most of them invoice, take payment over the counter or both, and we have access to invoice finance and unsecured lenders through our panel. Enquiries run from £10,000 upwards.

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Browsing the rails at a clothes shop.

Alex BeardsleyFounder & Director

Updated 21 September 20268 min read

Business loans in Brighton and Hove

The Brighton enquiries that reach us split roughly in two. Agencies, studios, consultancies and software firms want a term loan or an invoice facility against work already billed; shops, salons, cafes and bars from the Lanes to Western Road ask about short-term working capital and equipment finance. Our lender panel takes in lenders for both, and we sit in the middle as the commercial finance broker: the case goes only to lenders whose published criteria it meets, and they decide. We will receive commission from lenders. On some cases we also charge a fee, which we set out in writing and agree with you before you proceed.

A £25,000 unsecured request is the most common size we see from the city. Each lender sets its own minimum, maximum, term and pricing. Smaller, shorter loans tend to cost more per pound borrowed, because the lender's fixed costs are spread over less money.

We are a Nottinghamshire broker with no office in Sussex. A Kemptown bar and a Hove architecture practice get the same named case handler by phone and email, and if a meeting in person would help, we say so and travel.

What we see from Brighton businesses

The council's own evidence base for its 2024 to 2027 Economic Plan, dated January 2024, makes the point better than we could: the number of businesses in the city rose 30% in ten years and jobs 19.5%, micro firms of up to nine staff went from 9,980 to 13,000 between 2013 and 2023 and make up around 90% of the count, and only 15 employers have 250 or more people. Digital jobs grew 40% and creative jobs 38%. That is a city of small, young, knowledge businesses, and the plan itself notes that 44% of new firms survive past five years.

For a lender, a three-year-old design agency in the North Laine with £600,000 of turnover and no property behind it can be read two ways: on its accounts for an unsecured loan, or on its debtors, here recognisable brands on 30-day terms, for invoice finance. The invoice lenders on our panel publish criteria built on the debtor book, and the unsecured lenders publish criteria built on the accounts.

The seafront and the Lanes are the other half. The evidence base puts hospitality at 12% of the city's businesses, and the Economic Plan values the visitor economy at over £1 billion a year. Those venues trade hardest between May and September, so a full year of bank statements shows a lender the whole season.

A cafe counter with the day's bakes under glass.

Funding types, and how Brighton businesses use them

Funding type	Typically used by	What sizes it
Invoice finance	Agencies, studios and consultancies billing brands on 30-day terms	The value of the debtor book
Asset finance	Fit-outs, kitchen kit, salon equipment and vans, with the asset as security	The price of the asset

Each lender publishes its own timescale, and they change. The lender assesses every case on its own numbers.

What lenders see in Brighton and Hove

Brighton and Hove had 13,785 VAT or PAYE registered enterprises in March 2025, down from 13,985 in 2024, beside an East Sussex county count of 23,105 (ONS, UK business: activity, size and location 2025, Nomis NM_142_1, read 21 September 2026). Professional, scientific and technical firms lead at 2,635, information and communication follows at 1,765, then construction at 1,525, arts, entertainment and other services at 1,300, retail at 1,285 and accommodation and food at 1,185. Retail carried the year's fall, from 1,515 to 1,285, while information and communication added 35. The city's GVA stood at £9.4bn on the 2021 estimate in the council's evidence base, up 13% on 2016, with nearly a fifth from financial and insurance activities.

Region-wide, the British Business Bank's Nations and Regions Tracker 2025 (7 October 2025) recorded 44% of South East smaller businesses using external finance in 2024, three points down on 2023, and its factsheet counted 22,900 business births in the region in the first half of 2025 against 22,055 deaths. The Bank of England's Agents, in September 2026, saw asset finance and invoice discounting facilities growing while noting that “Appetite for borrowing is still cautious due to the subdued outlook for the UK”. In Brighton that reads as lenders with capacity, borrowers with hesitation, and a broker's job of putting a well-prepared case in front of the lenders whose published criteria it meets.

Premises, kit and growth money in Brighton

Brighton rents are the recurring complaint on our calls, and the council's evidence base agrees, recording that a one-bed rental takes more than 30% of an average earner's pay in most of the city. For a trading company that would rather own its studio or shop, offices, retail units and leisure premises are all mainstream security for a commercial mortgage. A purchase that has to complete before a mortgage can be arranged, an auction lot for instance, is a bridging case. For property-secured lending we work with UK limited companies and LLPs only, for business and commercial purposes.

Equipment is simpler than people expect. Hair and beauty kit, restaurant and bar equipment, computer hardware and a shop or office fit-out can all go on asset finance, each with the asset as thesecurity rather than the director's flat. A growth loan for a second site is an ordinary term loan named for its purpose, priced on the accounts of the first site, so a Hove cafe opening a second branch is read on the trading record of the first.

Where we work around Brighton

Hove, Shoreham, Lewes, Worthing and Eastbourne all reach us the same way, by phone and email from our Nottinghamshire office, and East Sussex's 23,105 enterprises (Nomis, 2025) plus the West Sussex coast are the patch. Nobody from CapExpand is stationed on the south coast; the person who reads your accounts is the person who answers the phone.

We work with UK limited companies and LLPs only, for business and commercial purposes.

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.

Brighton business loan questions

Can a young Brighton agency get funding before it has two years of accounts?

Sometimes. Each unsecured and invoice finance lender publishes its own minimum trading history, and criteria vary from lender to lender. With signed client contracts, invoice lenders can also look at the invoices themselves.

Does a director need to own a home to borrow?

Not with every lender. Each unsecured and invoice lender publishes its own view of a director who does not own a home, which matters in a city where the council's own evidence base says renting a one-bed flat takes over 30% of an average earner's pay.

What happens if there is a CCJ or a missed payment on file?

Each lender sets its own view of adverse credit; the age of the mark, whether it is satisfied and the explanation all matter. Adverse credit can affect both the decision and the price.

Can you arrange a commercial mortgage on a Brighton studio or office?

Yes, for a limited company or LLP. Offices and retail units are mainstream security for a commercial mortgage. For property-secured lending we work with UK limited companies and LLPs only, for business and commercial purposes.

Where is CapExpand actually based?

At Pure Offices, Lake View Drive, Annesley, Nottinghamshire, and nowhere else. Brighton cases are handled by phone and email by a named case handler, and we do not claim a local presence we have not got.

Do you work with sole traders in Brighton?

No. We arrange finance for UK limited companies and LLPs only, so we cannot take a sole trader or partnership enquiry forward.

Start a Brighton business funding 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.

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Other cities we cover in South East: Milton Keynes, Oxford, Portsmouth, Reading, Southampton.

Firms in Brighton that invoice other businesses on terms have their own page: invoice finance in Brighton.

Sources and references

The local figures on this page were read from the sources below on 21 September 2026. Nomis rounds to the nearest five, and the ONS 2026 release of 24 September 2026 will update the enterprise counts.

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.