™
Working capital for
agencies and studios.
Creative work gets paid in arrears, but it gets made up front — crew booked, kit hired, freelancers invoicing before the client or platform settles. Short-term finance bridges that wait, and on every product the company borrows, never you personally. No personal guarantee.
Creditcorp is the growing name for the Credicorp group, and Credicorp Limited is the lender behind it. For an incorporated agency, studio or production company, it does one thing: short-term working capital to keep a project — and the cash flow around it — moving while you wait to be paid.
Few sectors carry as much cost before the invoice as creative and media. A design agency books a fortnight of freelance time the week a project kicks off; a video production company hires camera, lighting and a crew for a shoot that won’t be invoiced until delivery; a content studio funds editors and music licences while a platform’s payout sits thirty, sixty or ninety days out. This page looks at how a Business Bridging Loan, Credicorp Flex or Credicorp Slice tends to be used to bridge those gaps, so you can picture the fit before you apply.
Throughout, the borrower is the company — a UK private limited company (Ltd), LLP or PLC — not the founder or director who signs. That means no personal guarantee, no charge over a home and no personal credit check on a director. These are not personal loans, payday loans or sole-trader finance. When you’re ready, applying happens on the lender’s own site, credicorp.co.uk.
Why creative firms run short on cash
It is rarely about winning the work — agencies and studios are often busy and profitable. It is about the timing of money in and money out, and in creative work the money goes out first.
Projects are funded before they are billed
Most creative jobs cost real money to begin. Freelance designers, editors, copywriters, developers and crew invoice you as they work, not when the client finally pays. Add stock footage, music licences, fonts, print, location fees and post-production, and a serious sum is committed before the first stage invoice even goes out. The brief is won, the team is booked — and the company is already out of pocket.
Kit, hire and software stack up
Production leans on equipment, whether you own it or hire it. Cameras, lenses, lighting, grip, audio and edit suites are booked and paid for around the shoot dates, not the payment dates. On top of that sits a stack of monthly software and subscriptions — the creative suite, render and cloud tools — that runs whether or not a client has settled. The kit makes the work possible; it also ties up cash.
Clients and platforms settle slowly
Big brands, broadcasters and agencies are notorious for long payment terms — 30, 60, even 90 days is common, and that clock often only starts once a deliverable is signed off. If your income runs through a platform, marketplace or network instead, the payout cycle can be just as long. Either way, the cash for work you finished weeks ago lands well after you paid to make it.
Income is lumpy, costs are not
A couple of big projects can land in the same month, then nothing for weeks; a retainer can pause; a pitch you funded can go quiet. But salaries, studio rent, software and the next round of freelancers don’t pause with the invoicing. That mismatch — spiky income against steady, up-front cost — is exactly the gap short-term finance is built to bridge.
The kinds of funding that fit a creative business
Three plain-English shapes of short-term credit. The detail and the live terms sit with the lender — here is how each tends to be used on a project.
A Business Bridging Loan — a fixed sum for a known project
A single lump sum into the company account, repaid over a short, fixed term. It suits a one-off, time-boxed gap you can name: a signed-off production that needs crew and kit booked before the first stage invoice, a campaign launch with media and freelance costs up front, or a piece of equipment you need to deliver the job. You know the figure, and you can see the client payment that will clear it coming in.
Credicorp Flex — a line you draw on between projects
A revolving facility the company can dip into and repay as projects and payouts turn over. For an agency or studio running several jobs at different stages — one in production, one awaiting sign-off, one waiting on a platform payout — it smooths the peaks and troughs without taking out a fresh loan each time. You pay only for what you draw, not the whole limit, which suits lumpy creative income well.
Credicorp Slice — spread a single big bill
Got a chunky one-off bill — a kit-hire invoice, a print run, a licence or a freelance package — that you would rather not pay in one hit? Slice settles it in full today and lets the company repay over a few weeks for a flat fee. The supplier or freelancer is paid straight away, the work stays on track, and the cost is fixed before you commit.
We don’t publish rates or terms on this page on purpose — they live with the lender so you always see the current figures. Check the live product pages on credicorp.co.uk before you apply.
The company borrows — not you
In a business where the founder often is the brand, this is the part worth slowing down on.
Plenty of agency and studio founders have been asked, by a bank or a broker, to put their home on the line for a working-capital facility. A personal guarantee or a charge over the family house turns a normal project cash-flow gap into a personal risk — and in a sector where a single delayed client sign-off or a paused retainer can swing a quarter’s numbers, that is a heavy thing to sign for what is really a timing problem.
Credicorp is built differently. The agreement is between Credicorp and your company — the Ltd, LLP or PLC that holds the contracts, the bank account and the client relationships. There is no personal guarantee, no charge over a home and no personal credit check on a director. The company stands on its own trading position, which is exactly how it should be when the money is funding the company’s projects — not the founder’s lifestyle.
This is the flip side of the lender’s model: because Credicorp lends only to bodies corporate, it sits outside consumer credit entirely. The full regulatory position is set out on the group site, creditcorpgroup.co.uk/lending-and-regulation.
How it can play out — a worked example
A made-up, clearly anonymised business — not a real customer — just to show the shape of the timing problem.
Picture a small video production company — call it a UK limited company with four permanent staff who buy in freelance crew per shoot. It wins a three-film content package for a national brand: good margin, a client it would love to keep, but the films have to be shot and cut before a single invoice can be raised on delivery.
The shoot needs a director of photography, a sound recordist, a gaffer and a runner for three days, plus camera and lighting hire across the same dates. Editors and a colourist invoice through post. A music licence and stock footage are paid up front. All of that lands in the company account over about a month. The brand’s purchase order, meanwhile, pays on 60-day terms — and the clock only starts once the final cut is signed off. On paper the package is comfortably profitable; in the bank account, the company is funding two months of crew, kit and post before the first payment arrives, while a retainer from another client has just paused for a quarter.
Rather than turn the package down or lean on the founder personally, the company bridges the gap with short-term finance against its own trading position — covering the crew, kit hire and post-production — and repays when the brand settles. The paused retainer restarting later is a bonus, not a lifeline. Same project, same margin; the difference is simply that the cash was there when the work needed making. The figures and the right product for a situation like this are set on the lender at credicorp.co.uk.
Creative & media funding — common questions
The questions agency and studio owners ask most. For anything beyond these, the lender’s team can help.
Can my agency or studio borrow without a personal guarantee from a director?
Yes. Credicorp lends to the company — a UK limited company, LLP or PLC — not to the director or founder who signs. There is no personal guarantee, no charge over a home and no personal credit check on a director. The agreement sits between Credicorp and your business.
We have to pay freelancers and a kit hire before the client pays us. Can funding cover that?
That is the classic creative cash-flow gap, and one of the most common reasons studios look at short-term finance. A Business Bridging Loan or Credicorp Slice can cover crew, kit hire and production costs now, with repayment timed around the client invoice or platform payout landing later. Specifics are set on the lender at credicorp.co.uk.
Our income is lumpy — a few big projects, then quiet weeks. Does that rule us out?
No. Uneven, project-by-project income is normal in creative and media work, and it is exactly the shape a revolving facility like Credicorp Flex is built for. Credicorp looks at the company's overall trading position rather than expecting a flat monthly income, so a feast-and-famine pattern does not count against you.
Can a limited company use this even if most of the team are freelancers?
Yes, as long as you contract and bank through a UK limited company, LLP or PLC. It is common for an agency or production company to be a small permanent team buying in freelance crew, editors and designers per project — the company is still the borrower, and the freelancers it pays are simply a cost the funding can help cover.
Are you a bank, and is this regulated consumer credit?
No. Credicorp is an exempt business lender, not a bank and not a consumer-credit firm. It lends only to bodies corporate under Article 60B of the FSMA Regulated Activities Order 2001, so this is business credit, not a regulated consumer credit agreement. It is not for sole-trader freelancers or for borrowing in a personal name.
Where do I actually apply?
This site is the Creditcorp brand front door and does not take applications. Applying, drawing down and managing the account all happen on the operating lender, credicorp.co.uk. You can compare the products and start an application there.
More general answers live on the Creditcorp FAQ, and the how-it-works overview walks through the whole journey from first look to funds in the bank.
Related sectors
If your work overlaps these trades, their pages may fit the cash-flow shape too.
- Technology & IT — funding a hire or kit ahead of revenue, and bridging milestone-based client payments.
- Professional services — bridging the lag between billable work done and invoices paid between fee cycles.
- E-commerce & online — funding ad spend that pays back later, or bridging the wait for marketplace and platform payouts.
Or head back to the full industries overview to see all sixteen sectors. For company, trade-mark and legal detail, the group site is creditcorpgroup.co.uk.
Keep the project moving
Whatever the stage you’re funding, applying, drawing down and managing your account all happen on the lender’s site, credicorp.co.uk.