In our seventh episode of the Inside Accountancy podcast, Ollie Maitland, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer of finance platform Capitalise, speaks with reporter Chris Jewers about alternative finance, and why accountants should be in-the-know.
Despite the financial crash of 2008 now being more than a decade ago, a lack of willingness among big banks to finance SMEs remains. This has compounded recently in the face of Brexit, the threat of recession and further economic uncertainty. In that time, however, the number of alternative funding options available to SMEs have increased
Would-be entrepreneurs saw an opportunity to fill this market gap that has been left open by this reluctance to lend from big banks.
Ollie Maitland, co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Capitalise, is one such entrepreneur. Founded in 2016, Capitalise is a platform that matches accountants and their clients to sources of alternative finance.
Identifying the opportunity, and enabled in no small part by technology, hundreds of businesses offering various forms of finance grew out of the ashes of the financial crash. As a result, the alternative finance market has flourished into a thriving industry.
But there is still a lack of awareness among accountants, business owners and financial decision-makers around the finance options that are available, and staying on top of the market is a time-consuming job. Capitalise is looking to address this problem by assisting these groups, and connecting them to these sources.
As many accountants see their roles shift from compliance to advisory, the ability to assist SMEs with finding and securing finance is an opportunity to add value to a practice.
Speaking in the latest episode of Inside Accountancy, Ollie discusses Alternative Finance, what accountants need to know about it, the biggest challenges faced by accountants when sourcing finance, and what advise he would give to accountants who have been given the task of finding finance for their clients.
Accountancy Age also spoke to Ollie in November, where he discussed how accountants can add value to their practice by offering an alternative finance service. Read the full story here to learn more about the topic.
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