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Alternative financing refers to funding solutions that exist outside of traditional bank lending. These options are designed to provide faster, more flexible access to working capital for businesses that may not meet bank lending criteria or need a facility that adapts to fluctuating cash flow. Common forms include invoice finance, asset-based lending (ABL), trade finance, and supply chain finance.

Unlike fixed bank loans, these solutions grow with your turnover or asset base, giving businesses a revolving source of liquidity to manage operations, fund expansion, and respond quickly to new opportunities.

A traditional bank loan typically involves a fixed borrowing amount, set repayment schedule, and extensive credit requirements.

Alternative financing, by contrast, offers dynamic access to capital based on your assets—such as receivables, stock, or equipment. The facility scales with your business, allowing more funding as your invoices or assets increase. It’s faster to arrange, less restrictive, and often tailored to the realities of your cash flow and trading cycles, rather than rigid credit scores or historic performance.

Alternative financing suits a wide range of businesses, from start-ups and SMEs to established corporates across sectors including manufacturing, wholesale, transport, and recruitment.
It’s especially beneficial for companies that:

• Experience long customer payment terms
• Are growing rapidly and need scalable funding
• Operate seasonally or cyclically
• Have been declined or restricted by traditional banks

By unlocking working capital tied up in assets, these solutions provide stability and flexibility during growth or transition periods.

The most widely used forms include:

• Invoice Finance: Unlock cash from unpaid invoices.
• Invoice Discounting: Similar to factoring but confidential.
• Selective Invoice Finance:  Allows businesses to choose which customer accounts to sell to a finance provider in exchange for immediate cash.
• Bad Debt Protection: Ideal for companies navigating long payment terms or customer insolvency risk

Each option is structured to enhance cash flow, giving businesses the flexibility to fund operations and invest in growth.

Invoice finance converts your outstanding invoices into immediate cash. Once you issue an invoice to a creditworthy customer, a funding partner advances up to 90% of the invoice value within 24–48 hours. When the customer pays, the remaining balance is released (minus a small fee).

This facility aligns funding directly with your sales activity—so the more invoices you raise, the more working capital becomes available. It’s an ideal way to smooth cash flow and avoid waiting 30–90 days for customer payments.

In many cases, yes. Alternative lenders often work alongside existing bank relationships, providing additional liquidity that complements traditional facilities.

For example, a company may keep a bank overdraft for day-to-day expenses while using invoice finance to manage long payment terms to support expansion. This blended approach allows greater flexibility and ensures that each funding stream serves a specific operational need.