Funding & Finance – Your Options

This half day event will explain the variety of funding & finance options available to innovative businesses and which are best suited for your growth stage. It will also explain R&D Tax Credits, how to qualify and the process to claim relief.

Overview

Funding and finance is often crucial in medium to long term business plans. There are many options available such as equity funding, venture capital, and grants. Each comes with its own pros and cons and some may be more suitable to your business than others both in terms of the intended use of the money and the chances of securing it. It is important to understand your options and make an informed decision of what is right for you.

Innovate UK EDGE provides funded innovation & growth support to SMEs and has helped businesses to secure millions of pounds in investment and grants. This event is for South-East England registered businesses to help make the right choices to fit their strategy and give the best chances of success.

Key topics covered

Investment readiness

Any investment ready business should be able to clearly demonstrate a strong team, a deep understanding of their market and competition, a detailed understanding of their business model, how the business makes money and what traction and key milestones have been achieved. More importantly, the business must know what the plans are once funds are raised, how the funds will be used to scale the business and what the key value creating milestones are that will ultimately lead to a successful exit.

Grant applications

For most businesses, grant applications are a rare task so have limited knowledge of what is available and little experience on the application process and what is needed to be successful. Grant applications can be highly competitive and take many hours of preparation to give you the best chance of winning. Identifying the right grants to apply for and understanding what assessors will be looking for are crucial in these game changing opportunities.

Harnessing Intellectual Property

The utilisation of Intellectual Property Rights can help your business to maximise market and investor potential. Through effective IP identification, protection and exploitation strategies you will not only protect your assets and have confidence to grow but also make your business more attractive to investment and improve your chances of winning grants.

R&D Tax Relief

Any business which has taken a commercial risk in developing process, product or solution for internal or external use can claim a percentage of their staff costs, consumables, prototyping and materials back in form of relief against previous or forthcoming corporation tax. This relief will come in two forms as either a cash injection back in to the business or reduction of forthcoming Corporation Tax liabilities.

Event Learnings

This event will help you understand the funding and finance options available to your business and which will best suit your strategy and planning. You will learn practical tips from experienced innovation & growth specialists on how to prepare to unlock investment and identify and apply for the most appropriate grants for your technologies.