Businesses need to look beyond the high street for funding with up to 50% of loan requests being refused by banks.

There are now 100s of new funders who are ready to lend to UK businesses.

However, shopping around is nearly impossible as each lender has their own lengthy application process.

For the first time, FUNDING XCHANGE allows business owners to compare options across the market and makes lenders compete for business - ensuring the business can pick from the best available terms.

Why shouldn’t businesses have lenders compete to provide funding? That was the question that led to the birth of FUNDING XCHANGE - the UK’s first ever online business funding marketplace - launching today.

Five years ago, when high-street banks provided around 95% of business funding, small businesses didn’t really need to shop around. But today, up to 50% of loan requests are being refused by banks.

The good news is that more than 100 funders have stepped into the gap and are ready to lend. But this has created new challenges for business owners who are often unaware of the options or find the choice bewildering. Running a business leaves little time and energy to find and negotiate with multiple lenders.

As a result, 2/3 of businesses seeking funding only approach one potential lender and 60% spend less than two hours sourcing funding. Many business wait until the last minute to seek financing (40% seek financing within 7 days of needing it) making the search for funding one of the most stressful experiences for small business owners.

Until now, shopping around meant giving up evenings and weekends to battle with a huge number of providers and products before wrestling with endless application forms.

FUNDING XCHANGE has a simple mission: to give small business owners control over finding finance by making it simple to shop around for the best deal from a wide group of lenders in a matter of minutes.

Business owners answer a few questions and with just one request can reach many funders to get a transparent view of the available options. Funders respond with individual quotes, bidding for the opportunity to lend and making it easy for businesses to compare. For the first time, FUNDING XCHANGE puts business owners in control and allows them to choose which lenders to work with.

Katrin Herrling, CEO and Co-Founder commented: “As a small business owner, I wanted a quick and easy way to compare financing offers from different providers. As consumers we have benefited hugely from price comparison websites. We bring the same benefits to a market where shopping around previously consumed a huge amount of time and energy. We have done all the leg-work so it is now easy for businesses to get quotes from a wide range of lenders.”