Capitalise & ACCA

Capitalise was established in 2015 to help make the ever increasingly complex funding landscape easier to understand for small businesses and their trusted advisers

Capitalise works with over 100 lenders, from Fintech to traditional banks and alternative lenders, as well as numerous other capital partners to support funding. Their funding solutions include working capital, invoice finance, secured and merchant funding.

Partnering with accountants to help deliver funding, Capitalise discovered that small businesses were four times more likely to get access to the capital they needed.

Today, Capitalise work with over 3,000 accountants across the UK and South Africa and have delivered over one billion UKP in approved funding offers, supporting almost 10,000 small businesses, across a range of sectors and size.

Supporting businesses further, Capitalise can also assist with credit improvement, debt recovery, R&D Tax credits and grants. This helps accountants better support their clients and create healthier and more sustainable balance sheets.

In 2022, Capitalise partnered with the ACCA to further support this vision. By delivering a series of educational webinars to help you, the accountant, to better understand the needs of your clients. They’ll be helping you understand the options available and discuss hot button topics like the importance of credit scores, the rise of sustainable funding and how to approach these conversations to help you get closer to your clients .

As well as hearing from the Capitalise team, you will be introduced to a series of subject experts who will expand and enhance your knowledge around these key subjects:

Overview of the SME space from a capital perspective
Date: 15 February 2022
Time: 10.00-11.00

Deep dive into the funding landscape
Date: 15 March 2022
Time: 10.00-11.00

The importance of credit rating
Date: 19 April 2022
Time: 10.00-11.00

Adding more impact to your Client conversations
Date: 14 June 2022
Time: 10.00-11.00

Sustainable finance
Date: 12 July 2022
Time: 10.00-11.00

SESSION OVERVIEW

This 50 minute webinar is aimed at the practising accountant or business advisers to provide delegates with an introduction to the challenges faced by the SME when it comes to raising capital to support the full life cycle of their business.

KEY FEATURES

• How SME banking has changed
  
• The paradox of choice for the SME business owner
• Why the accountant is best placed to support the SME when it comes to capital needs
• Talking to your clients about capital
• Will I Get Out of It?
• Insight into the challenges faced by SMEs
• The tools available to better support SMEs
• Free Access to CPD points with Capitalise’s Core online learning
• Key opportunities and hot topics within the SME space

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

This seminar will be of benefit to anyone who is looking to fully support their SME clients to grow their businesses, whatever stage of the business life cycle they are in.

SPEAKER

Phil Hobden (Head of Education & Engagement - Capitalise)
Oliver Cummings (Commercial Director, Capitalise)
Polly Dhaliwal (Enterprise Nation)
Glenn Collins (Head of Technical Advisory, ACCA)

SESSION OVERVIEW

This 50 minute webinar is aimed at the practising accountant or business adviser to provide delegates with deeper insight into the different funding solutions available to SMEs and empower you to have more meaningful conversations with your clients around them.

KEY FEATURES

• Looking at the different types of lenders in the UK
• Understand each funding solution and where it’s relevant
• Find out what lenders look for
• Advising and guiding clients

This seminar provides delegates with an essential review of the important recent developments in the world of funding for SME’s

WHAT WILL I GET OUT OF IT?

• What options are available?
• What to look out for when looking at funding solutions
• When best to utilise these options
• When is the best time to have these conversations with clients
• Take Away: Guide to Debt Lending

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

This seminar will be of benefit to anyone who is looking to fully support their SME clients around their capital needs across the full life cycle of their business.

SPEAKERS

Phil Hobden (Head of Education & Engagement - Capitalise)
Edward Revell (Head of SME Lending - Starling Bank)
Iona Brooks (Funding Specialist (Invoice Finance) - Capitalise)
Alice Garvey (Funding Specialist (Secured Finance) - Capitalise)
Georgina Crocker (Funding Specialist (Secured Finance) - Capitalise)
Marcus Batson (Funding Specialist - Capitalise)

SESSION OVERVIEW

This 50 minute webinar is aimed at the practising accountant or business advisers to demystify credit rating and take a deeper look at the impact it has on small businesses. Including how to actively look to improve this for your clients, with practical tips and guidance.

KEY FEATURES

• How credit rating for SME’s work
• The impact credit rating has - from supplier credit to funding
• What your clients’ could achieve with a good credit rating
• How to spot if your clients’ credit rating could be negatively affected

This seminar provides delegates with an essential review of the important recent developments in the world of funding for SME’s

WHAT WILL I GET OUT OF IT?

• The importance of credit rating
• How to improve a credit rating
• What options are available?
• Take Away: Guide to Credit Improvement

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

This seminar will be of benefit to anyone who wants to support their SME clients to provide a healthy and sustainable business and provide a better service.

SPEAKERS

Phil Hobden (Head of Education & Engagement - Capitalise)
James Piper (Lightbulb)
William Jones (Capitalise)

SESSION OVERVIEW

This 50 minute webinar is aimed at the practising accountant or business advisers to demystify credit rating and take a deeper look at the impact it has on small businesses. Including how to actively look to improve this for your clients, with practical tips and guidance.

KEY FEATURES

• How to use your emotional intelligence (EQ) to maximise your client impact
• How to hold impactful client meetings using technology and agendas
• How to understand your clients true pain rather than just the symptom

WHAT WILL I GET OUT OF IT?

• Best practices to utilise when speaking to clients
• Understanding of how technology can enhance your meetings
• How to add valuable impact to your client interactions

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

This seminar will be of benefit to anyone who is looking to fully support their SME clients around their capital needs across the full life cycle of their business.

SPEAKERS

Amy Cotton, head of Partnership Management at Capitalise
Alexandra Bond-Burnett, ACCA leadership coach
Rory Mcrea, Head of product design and marketing, Connect4
Peter Jarman, Managing Partner at PJCO

SESSION OVERVIEW

This 50 minute webinar is aimed at the practising accountant or business adviser to provide delegates with an understanding of what sustainable finance is and why it’s important for SME’s. We will also discuss the the key actions needed to support small businesses in their journey to net zero.

KEY FEATURES

• The challenges and opportunities of the net zero transition across the UK.
• What does sustainable finance look like
• How to ensure that SMEs understand the importance of sustainable finance
• The cost impact of being ‘sustainable’

This seminar provides delegates with an essential review of the important recent developments in the world of funding for SME’s with a specific lens on sustainable finance for businesses.

WHAT WILL I GET OUT OF IT?

• What options are available?
• An understanding if the SME Sustainable funding markert
• Take Away: A Guide to Sustainable Finance

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

This seminar will be of benefit to anyone who is looking to fully support their SME clients around their capital needs across the full life cycle of their business.

SPEAKERS

TBC

Is Capitalise regulated under the FCA?

Platfi Ltd, trading as Capitalise, is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority for regulated credit agreements.

What does Capitalise do?

Capitalise provides an easy way for businesses to access lenders and compare their products. Our advanced platform makes intelligent matches and ranks lenders, based on their past successes, to help businesses select a suitable funding solution.
With so many lending institutions and alternative funding platforms available, it's difficult to know which are the most appropriate lenders for your business requirements. Establishing which lenders are a good fit and filling out multiple application forms is hugely time consuming. Capitalise takes the burden out of searching and applying.

Is Capitalise a lender?

No. Capitalise is not a lender. It is a software company functioning as an independent aggregator, facilitating applications and collaboration with lenders and advisors. All lending and subsequent payments are strictly between the lender and the business.

Does Capitalise facilitate lending for sole traders?
Capitalise will only facilitate lending to sole traders where the use of the borrowing is solely for the use of their business. Capitalise is unable to help with respect to consumer lending, for example lending for the purpose of a buy to let property.

What credit data does Capitalise use?

Capitalise will run electronic checks to validate information provided. These initial checks are at the company level and do not leave any trace / footprint on your credit history. Capitalise will never undertake a consumer credit check. However, some of the lenders in the course of their due diligence might.

Does Capitalise offer advice?

No. Capitalise does not offer advice but instead it utilises information about your company and matches it to the criteria of lenders from the traditional, independent and alternative finance sectors.
How does Capitalise benefit the introducer?
The platform is designed to streamline the application process in the fastest, most transparent way possible. It enables collaboration between an introducer and a business to facilitate the application with multiple lenders.

What is the process of onboarding as an introducer?

All introducers will be vetted to better understand the nature of their business and whether they have any statutory regulation. This will involve a short conversation with an account manager who will be your point of contact.

What type of businesses can I introduce through Capitalise?

You can introduce any UK Limited business for any product on the platform.

Why is collaboration with your client beneficial?

Assuming you are functioning in an advisory role, such as an accountant, your input will provide a higher rate of application success. The administration typically involved in this process is removed and therefore you can provide value add services to your client.

How will I be notified if a business requests collaboration?

There are two notification methods - either in the notification centre in the platform or via an email. The email will form part of the setup process.

Does the platform vet borrowers?

The matching algorithm will put the business in contact with the most appropriate lenders. The lenders will in turn undertake due diligence to confirm that the introduction was suitable and that the information provided is in good order prior to lending.

How do we monitor progress?

As well as notifications, you will have access to an introducers dashboard. This provides metrics both about an individual application and collectively across all active and past applications. Metrics will also be presented on a portfolio basis.

How do I facilitate borrowing?

The process is simple. By going to capitalise.com, you can complete a brief application form on behalf of your client. The platform requires you to confirm that you have your client's permission to apply on their behalf and they will then be notified of the application.
Once the application is submitted, the information provided will form the basis of a match to several lenders who have the borrowing criteria to match your client's profile.

What data does Capitalise use?

Capitalise uses a variety of data sources to ensure the needs of our clients are served whilst operating within regulatory legislation. These sources include information provided by the business and in some cases public information, made available by companies such as Creditsafe, to pre-populate your application.

In addition, by signing in with another platform, such as a cloud accounting package like Xero, Capitalise will incorporate that into the application. Where you have signed in with another platform, your username and password is never made available to Capitalise.

What credit data does Capitalise use?

Capitalise will run electronic checks to validate information provided. These initial checks are at the company level and do not leave any trace / footprint on your credit history. Capitalise will never undertake a consumer credit check. However, some of the lenders in the course of their due diligence might.

Are there any fees?

There are no fees for using Capitalise.

Is there any commission?

Depending on your status as an introducer, commission is payable on successful loans introduced. Please email support@capitalise.com for more information.

What are our contractual obligations with respect to Capitalise?

Please refer to our terms and conditions.

5 CPD units

1 hour of learning = 1 unit of CPD.

ACCA members can use this learning to meet their CPD requirements provided it is relevant to their career. If the event contributes to general knowledge and skills, it should be recorded as non-verifiable CPD. If the learning can be applied in the workplace, it will contribute to verifiable CPD.

This event is organised by ACCA Continuous Learning alongside Capitalise.

If you have any queries regarding this event please contact us on:

UKCL@accaglobal.com