Manufacturing Advisory Service sponsor ART Business Loans (ART) is on track to lend more than £2.5m this year.
The figure was revealed by ART CEO Steve Walker at the organisation’s annual general meeting.
Dr Walker told the meeting: “We are on track to lend £2.5m this year, but have the capacity to lend up to £4m. When we launched in 1997, we were supported by true social investors – whose only return was knowing the impact that their investment had had on the local economy.
“In addition, we are now also able to offer a financial return in the form of Community Investment Tax Relief and will be looking to raise at least £500,000 from individual and company investors in this financial year.”
Keynote speaker for the event, held at the iCentrum building at Innovation Birmingham Campus, was Secretary General of Co-operatives UK, Ed Mayo.
In his keynote speech, Mr Mayo talked about the value of Community Development Finance to the economy and the importance of Community Economic Development.
He said: “The process of working with local people makes a real difference. We are seeing new values-based movements growing as the public sector steps back. This is relevant in terms of the economy and Brexit, because we’re going to have to encourage entrepreneurship and see real bootstrap development.”
Mr Mayo was co-author with Pat Conaty, who also co-founded ART and attended this year’s AGM, of research published in 1998, entitled ‘Small is Bankable’. He has followed ART’s development with interest since the outset.
He added: “It’s tough to be a non-bank in the lending market but ART started with an idea about what it wanted to achieve, the impact it wanted to make, and can tell some inspiring stories about the difference it has made to thousands of businesses.”
Dr Nick Venning DL, Chair of ART, said: “ART pioneered a model of raising money through social investment to be lent locally 21 years ago and is about to launch another pioneering campaign to raise money from investors looking to use their money to achieve a social as well as a financial return. This will be via the Ethex social investment platform.”
Anyone interested in the investment opportunity can register to find out more via ART’s website www.artbusinessloans.co.uk.
Pictured from left: Nick Venning, Ed Mayo and Steve Walker.
