The new tranche of Pool E funding follows the return of almost £100 million from previous awardees Nationwide and Metro Bank, which both pulled back from their commitment to the SME market due to challenging market conditions.
BCR says it received a total of 92 applications from 67 applicants for the Pool E Application Period One, which is intended to facilitate the commercialisation of financial technology that is relevant to SMEs.
Funding Xchange and Onfido topped the poll, each scooping £5 million in grants. Codat, ezbob, Fractal Labs and Previse were each granted £2.5 million.
All applicants were judged on their ability to deliver on their commitments by the end of 2022.
Aidene Walsh, lead director on the Capability and Innovation Fund workstream, says:
“It has been really encouraging to see that, despite the challenging economic environment, this Pool has attracted a large number of diverse and innovative organisations that are making strong progress in meeting the needs of UK SMEs. All successful applicants have demonstrated a clear vision for how they will deliver on their business proposition by December 2022 and provide agile and enduring products and services to the SME market.”
The next round of cash hand outs from the fund have a combined value of £80 million, and will be announced on 21 September.
