Social media marketing start-up
Borrower:
Social Media Company
Loan amount:
£1m
Term:
2 years
Repayment:
Revolving with Bullet Repayment
Security:
Company Debenture
Loan to Value:
N/A
Interest rate:
10% P/A
Summary
A young, international, social media marketing client was referred to Ashbridge Partners by their accountant during lockdown.
The start of the Covid 19 pandemic had meant that many of their contracts, although with strong, global brands had been placed on hold. Their existing lender had offered a CBILS loan – which would protect jobs in the short term, but it wouldn’t give them the growth funding they needed as recovery began. As the pandemic pushed more and more sales out of the shops and onto on-line channels, our client saw enormous growth potential – they just needed access to the finance to resource it.
Our relationships with specialist lenders enabled us to secure a £1m revolving credit facility to not only secure jobs during the pandemic, but to also provide capital to rebuild and grow.
Goal
To secure a £1m facility to protect jobs, preserve liquidity, and continue their growth and development. Our client knew the business was there for them to win, based on their relationships with key customers, and were confident of delivering a strong ROI provided they could retain staff and recruit to fill demand when it came.
Challenges
Their rapid growth is in a new digital industry – traditional lenders have limited historic trends on which to base decisions, and as a young company, they were still to make a profit. These factors meant that the business fell outside of the traditional bank approach to credit assessment, and they were unable to access the cash they needed.
Staff accepted salary and bonus cuts to protect jobs during the pandemic to preserve cash while we worked with them to secure a longer-term solution.
Added Value
Through our wider pool of trusted contacts, we approached more specialist lenders who focus on the SaaS sector, lending to businesses with strong recurring revenues, and who were open to appraising and supporting an ambitious, young company’s business plan.