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Alternative UK Business Finance, Funding & Lending Landscape In 2023

The growth of alternative finance in recent years has been largely due the difficulty small businesses have had obtaining traditional bank loans. Wondering where the alternative funding model booming and which industries have been the most enthusiastic?

Then have a look at our report:

Alternative UK Business Finance, Funding & Lending Landscape In 2019

Mapping European Alternative Finance

Below is combined value of online alternative finance, peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding by European country.

European Alternative Finance & Lending Map

CountryAlternative Finance Funding Volume ($ Millions)
UK $20,713
Germany $1,434
France $1,394
Latvia$641
Finland$569
Spain$530
Switzerland$410
Netherlands$390
Poland$310
Italy$267
Estonia$263
Denmark$222
Lithuania$192
Sweden$184
Slovakia$174
Ireland$138
Austria$33
Bulgaria$31
Portugal$13

The Million Dollar Club

Crowdfunding is one of the most important financial mechanisms in existence. We’ve taken 175 projects that received over $1 million in funding and broken them down by sector.

TypeNumber of Crowdfunding ProjectsAverage Funding ($ million)Most Valuable CrowdfundAmount Raised ($ million)
Video Game38$9.1Star Citizen$217
Computing Hardware32$2.6Coolest Cooler$13
Blockchain31$177.7EOS $4,000
Other24$8.5Elio Motors$102
Movie/TV12$3.3Critical Role: The Legend of Vox Machina Animated Special$8
Board Game9$4.3Kingdom Death: Monster 1.5$12
3D printing7$5.7Glowforge$28
Wearable Tech6$6.7Pebble Time$20
Food5$4.4Flow Hive$13
Software5$4.7FirstBlood Crowdsale$6
Camera2$3.4PlexiDrone Camera Drone$2
Community1$18.4We The People Will Fund The Wall$18

Alternative Finance Vs GDP

We’ve compared the volume of alternative finance contributions per capita to GDP per capita so see which nations are developing more sophisticated marketplaces for alternative finance.

CountryTOTAL FUNDING VOLUME PER MILLION PEOPLE ($ MILLIONS)TOTAL FUNDING VOLUME ($ MILLIONS)GDP PER CAPITA
Latvia$299.4$572 $15,594
UK$276.2 $18,494 $39,720
Estonia$179.8$234 $19,705
Finland$91.3$508 $45,703
Lithuania$59.9$172 $16,681
Switzerland$42.5$366 $80,190
Denmark$34.3$198 $56,308
Slovakia$28.4$155 $17,605
Ireland$25.5$124 $69,331
Netherlands$20.3$348 $48,223
France$19.0 $1,244 $38,477
Sweden$16.4$164 $53,442
Germany$15.5 $1,281 $44,470
Spain$10.2$474 $28,157
Poland$7.3$276 $13,812
Italy$4.0$239 $31,953
Bulgaria$3.9$27 $8,032
Austria$3.4$30 $47,291
Portugal$1.1$12 $21,136

Sources & Methodology

Data for alternative finance and crowdfunding were pulled from recent reports from both 2017 and 2018 studies. Crowdfunding case studies were sourced from a variety of platforms and collated to give an overall ranking for projects that were funded in excess of $1 million.

  • orcamoney.com
  • crowdfundinghub.eu
  • jbs.cam.ac.uk
  • ey.com
  • crowdfundingblog.com
  • kickstarter.com
  • thebalancesmb.com

To learn more about companies offering alternative business finance see:

  • Business Loans
  • Business Loan Calculator
  • Unsecured Business Loans
  • Start-Up & New Business Loans
  • Working Capital Loans
  • VAT & Business Tax Loans
  • Merchant Cash Advance
  • Invoice Finance
  • Invoice Factoring
  • Invoice Discounting
  • Asset Based Finance
  • Commercial Mortgages
  • Commercial Mortgage Calculator
  • Property Development Finance
  • Commercial Bridging Finance

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