The British Business Bank has agreed a facility increase that will provide £29.4m of funding to smaller UK businesses, through an existing ENABLE Funding transaction with independent specialist finance provider, Time Finance.

The additional funding brings the total small business funding available through the facility to £64.4m. This further supports Time Finance in growing its pipeline and its proportion of own-book origination, so that it can provide more asset finance to UK smaller businesses.

The initial transaction, agreed in March 2018, was to provide £35m of funding. This was used to significantly expand Time Finance’s asset finance lending to businesses across the UK small business sector, primarily for those seeking hard asset finance – which includes equipment with robust residual values after a period of use.

The first £35m facility was provided through Time Finance plc’s wholly owned subsidiary Time Hard Asset Finance Limited. As part of today’s increase, the ENABLE Funding facility will be extended to Time Vendor Finance Limited (also a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Finance plc) to fund a broader range of assets, including soft assets.

This transaction also contributes to the British Business Bank’s objective of driving sustainable growth by increasing the supply of finance and creating a more diverse finance market for UK smaller businesses.

James Roberts, chief financial officer at Time Finance, said: “Over the past five years we have developed a strong working relationship with the British Business Bank and I am delighted this will now be able to continue for the foreseeable future. The enhanced facility will enable Time Finance to provide UK businesses with further funding for their business-critical equipment in one of our more secured and key strategic growth areas.”

Reinald de Monchy, managing director, guarantee and wholesale solutions, British Business Bank, added: “We’re very pleased to agree this facility increase with Time Finance, which will help them to provide a more diverse range of asset finance options to small businesses across the UK. We’re also excited to see the growth this will help stimulate across the sector through the ENABLE Funding programme.”