Start Up Loans
£500–£25,000 at fixed 6% with free mentoring — government-backed and open to self-employed ventures under three years old.
Funding · Powered by Swoop
Yes, the self-employed can get funded. Here's the whole market.
Our funding portal — powered by Swoop — matches your business against 1,000+ providers of loans, grants and finance. One profile, the whole market, no obligation.
How it works
From 'we need money' to real offers
- 1Build one profile
Ten minutes on the portal — who you are, what you need the money for, roughly how much.
- 2See your matches
Swoop's engine checks 1,000+ funding providers and shows what your business is actually likely to get — with no hard credit search.
- 3Sense-check with us
Before you accept anything, we look at the true cost against your numbers. Cheap headline rates with expensive strings get caught here.
- 4Get funded
Apply to the option you choose, with your paperwork and figures already in order — which is exactly what lenders want to see.
What's on the market
Funding routes that fit a business of one
Equipment finance
Cameras, computers, tools, vehicles — spread the cost against the asset instead of draining savings.
Cashflow facilities
Flexible credit that bridges the gap between finishing the work and the invoice clearing.
Invoice finance
Agencies and corporates paying you on 60-day terms? Release most of each invoice immediately.
Grants
Sector and regional pots open and close monthly — the portal watches them so you don't have to.
Scale-up lending
Moving from freelancer to studio or agency? Term loans backed by a plan with real numbers in it.
Funding questions
Asked all the time
What is the Buzz funding portal?
It's our white-label version of Swoop, one of the UK's leading business-funding platforms. You build one profile and it matches you against 1,000+ lenders, grant schemes and equity providers.
Does searching affect my credit score?
No. Exploring your matches is a soft search — a full credit check only happens if you choose to proceed with a specific lender's application.
What kind of funding can it find?
Start Up Loans for newer ventures, equipment and vehicle finance, working-capital and cashflow facilities, invoice finance for slow-paying clients, and grants where your sector or region offers them — matched to self-employed-scale businesses.
Does it cost anything to use?
No — searching and seeing your matches is free with no obligation. If you take funding, the provider's normal terms apply, and we'll help you sanity-check them first.
Will you help me choose?
Yes. That's the point of having an accountant in the loop — we'll look at the real cost of each option against your cashflow before you sign anything.
