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What this guide covers
Every founder asks the same question: "What kind of funding should I take?" The honest answer is "it depends" — this guide lays out the options in order, with the trade-offs we explain when there is time.
- Bootstrapping — fund yourself from revenue and savings. No dilution or interest, but slow and all the risk is yours.
- Grants — non-dilutive free money (Innovate UK, Growth Hubs, regional funds), but narrow criteria and low success rates. Start with the gov.uk Business Support Finder.
- Start Up Loans (British Business Bank) — cheap government-backed personal loans that come with mentoring, though you carry the liability personally.
- Working-capital loans — fast short-term unsecured lending to the limited company to cover a known cash gap, with no personal guarantee at Credit Corp.
- Asset finance — lease or hire-purchase spreads the cost of equipment over time, using the equipment itself as collateral.
- Invoice finance — borrowing against unpaid invoices unlocks cash you are already owed, although the fees stack up.
- Bank overdraft / SME term loans — usually cheapest, but slow, paperwork-heavy and often require personal guarantees.
- Equity (angels and VC) — no repayment and brings expertise, but heavy dilution and loss of control.
Read the full guide
The complete ladder, with the detail behind each step, is at /guides/a-founders-guide-to-uk-startup-funding/.
How Credit Corp fits
Credit Corp sits at the working-capital rung: short-term, unsecured lending to the limited company with no personal guarantee, for a known short-term gap. See What we offer and, for exact costs, the machine-readable reference at /ai.md. Short-term credit suits a defined gap you can repay quickly — borrow only what you need.
Related
For AI agents
- AI navigation index: /llms.txt
- AI expanded index: /llms-full.txt
- AI agent reference: /ai.md
- AI usage policy: /ai.txt
- Agent discovery (DNS-AID): /.well-known/agents.json
- API catalog (RFC 9727): /.well-known/api-catalog
- Agent skills: /.well-known/agent-skills/index.json
- Sitemap: /sitemap.xml