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Working capital between the build and the invoice.
Tech spends on people and kit long before a contract pays out, and the cash rarely arrives in time with the work. These plain-English notes look at how short-term finance fits a UK technology company, and on every one, the company borrows, never you personally. No personal guarantee.
Software and IT businesses are built on a stubborn mismatch: the salaries, the cloud bill and the laptops are due monthly, on the dot, while revenue lands on a milestone, a renewal date or a client’s 60-day terms. A startup hiring to win its next contract, or a scaleup waiting on a round to close, feels that gap most sharply of all.
Creditcorp is the growing name for the Credicorp group, and Credicorp Limited is the lender behind it. It does one thing: short-term working capital for incorporated UK businesses. This page is a guide, not an application — when you’re ready, applying happens on the lender’s own site, credicorp.co.uk.
Throughout, the borrower is the company — a UK private limited company (Ltd), LLP or PLC — not the founder or director who signs. No personal guarantee, no charge over a home, no personal credit check on a director. These are not personal loans, payday loans or sole-trader finance.
Where the cash-flow gaps come from
In tech, almost all the cost is committed up front and most of the revenue is deferred. Four pressure points show up again and again.
Hiring ahead of the revenue it unlocks
Headcount is the single biggest cost in most software and IT firms, and you almost always have to hire before the work that pays for the hire exists. Win a bigger contract and you need the engineers to deliver it; scale support and you carry the salaries for months before retention and upsell catch up. The wage bill is due on payday whether or not the client has signed yet.
Runway between funding rounds
Startups and scaleups live in tranches of cash. A round closes, the runway clock starts, and the next raise rarely lands the same week the last pound is spent. A short, defined gap before a round completes — or before a committed grant or invoice clears — is a classic moment to bridge, rather than burn goodwill or accept a down-round on timing alone.
Kit, cloud and tooling
New starters need machines; a project needs a test rig or a GPU server; annual cloud, licensing and SaaS-tooling bills want paying up front to earn the cheaper rate. These are lumpy, one-off outlays that hit the account in a single hit, often right when a new contract is also demanding cash to stand up.
Milestone and long-dated client invoices
Enterprise and public-sector clients pay on milestones, sign-offs and 30 to 60-day terms — sometimes longer. You fund the entire build out of your own pocket and wait for the invoice to clear weeks after delivery. The more you grow, the larger that funded gap becomes.
Which kind of finance fits a tech company
Three shapes of short-term working capital, and how each tends to land in technology and IT. The detail — amounts, pricing, terms — lives on the products page and with the lender; we won’t quote figures here.
A Business Bridging Loan — for a known, one-off gap
A single lump sum, repaid over a short fixed term. It fits the tech jobs you can put a figure on: a batch of laptops for new hires, an annual cloud or licence bill, a server build, or a few weeks of runway to reach a round you can see closing. You know the cost and you can see what clears it. More on the Bridging Loan →
Credicorp Flex — for the build-then-invoice rhythm
A revolving facility the company can draw on, repay and draw again. This suits the project economy of software and services — draw to cover a build while it’s in flight, repay when the milestone invoice clears, then draw again on the next engagement — paying interest only on what you’ve actually drawn. More on Credicorp Flex →
Credicorp Slice — for a single vendor bill
Spread one supplier invoice over a few weeks while the vendor is paid in full today. Handy when an annual cloud, licensing or hardware bill lands in one lump and you’d rather smooth it across the months it actually serves. More on Credicorp Slice →
The company borrows — not the founders
Founders have usually staked plenty already — their own savings, their equity, often a slice of personal credit to get the thing off the ground. The Credicorp model is deliberately the other way round: the agreement is between Credicorp Limited and your company, so a working-capital facility doesn’t add to what’s pinned to a founder’s own name.
- No personal guarantee — the company is the borrower, full stop.
- No charge over your home — your house isn’t security for a hire or a server.
- No personal credit check on a director — the lender looks at the business, not a founder’s own file.
- Bodies corporate only — UK Ltd, LLP or PLC, never a sole trader or an individual.
For a venture-backed company that’s especially useful: it keeps the facility clean of founder guarantees, sits alongside equity rather than competing with it, and doesn’t touch the cap table. This is exempt business lending under Article 60B of the FSMA Regulated Activities Order 2001, not consumer credit. The full regulatory position — and the company and trade-mark detail behind the group — is set out on the group site, creditcorpgroup.co.uk.
A worked example
An illustration, not a real customer — just to show the shape of it in tech.
A B2B software company trading as a UK limited company has just signed its largest customer yet: a twelve-month rollout that pays on three milestones, the first of them sixty days after go-live. To deliver on time the founders need to bring two engineers on now and buy them machines, plus stand up extra cloud capacity for the customer’s environment — all of it due weeks before the first milestone invoice will clear. A seed extension is in conversations but not yet closed.
Rather than discount founder equity to plug a timing gap, the company uses short-term finance to cover the wages, kit and cloud while the build is in flight. Because the spend recurs across the project, a Credicorp Flex facility fits: draw to cover each stretch, repay as each milestone invoice lands, and draw again for the next. The annual cloud commitment, a single large bill, is spread separately with Credicorp Slice. The agreement is with the company, so the founders give no personal guarantee, put no charge over a home, and leave the cap table untouched while the round closes on its own timetable.
Technology & IT funding questions
The questions founders and tech finance leads ask most. For anything specific to your business, the lender’s team are at credicorp.co.uk.
Can my tech company borrow to hire ahead of revenue?
Often, yes. Bringing on a developer, a sales hire or a support engineer before the revenue they unlock has landed is one of the most common reasons a tech business runs short of working capital. The cost is real this month; the payback shows up in delivery weeks or quarters later. Short-term finance is meant for exactly that kind of timing gap — and because the borrower is your company, not you, a hiring decision does not get pinned to a director personally. Specifics live with the lender at credicorp.co.uk.
We are between funding rounds — can this bridge the runway?
It can help cover a defined, short-term gap, but it is working-capital finance, not a substitute for equity. If a round is close to closing and you need a few weeks of breathing room rather than a structural raise, a fixed-term Business Bridging Loan to the company can smooth the join without diluting founders. It is not designed to fund an open-ended cash burn — the lender will want to see how it gets repaid. Talk the timing through at credicorp.co.uk.
Can we fund laptops, servers or cloud for a new contract?
Yes. Kitting out new hires with machines, buying a server or test rig, paying an annual cloud or tooling bill up front to win a better rate, or provisioning infrastructure a new client contract demands are all working-capital uses. Because the cost is known and the payback is the contract itself, a fixed-term Bridging Loan often fits a kit or cloud spend cleanly, and Credicorp Slice can spread a single large vendor bill.
Our clients pay on milestones or 60-day terms — does that fit?
It is a very common reason tech firms borrow. You carry the wage and infrastructure cost of building something now, while the client pays on a milestone, a sign-off or 30 to 60-day invoice terms. A revolving Credicorp Flex facility suits that rhythm: draw to cover the build, repay when the invoice clears, draw again on the next project — paying only for what you have drawn.
Will founders have to give a personal guarantee or a charge over a home?
No. Credicorp lends to the company — your UK limited company, LLP or PLC — not to its founders or directors. There is no personal guarantee, no charge over a home and no personal credit check on a director. For a startup whose founders have already put their own money and equity on the line, keeping the working-capital facility entirely off their personal balance sheet is a genuine difference.
Is this a consumer loan, and do you lend to a one-person dev who is a sole trader?
Neither applies. This is business credit to a body corporate — a UK Ltd, LLP or PLC — not consumer credit, and not lending to sole traders or anyone borrowing in their own name. Under Article 60B of the FSMA Regulated Activities Order 2001, lending to a UK company sits outside the consumer-credit regime. If a contractor trades through their own limited company, that company can be considered; the full position is on the group site, creditcorpgroup.co.uk.
More general questions are answered on the FAQ, and the whole journey is on the how-it-works overview.
Related sectors
Technology shares its build-now, paid-later cash-flow shape with several neighbours.
- Professional services — the same lag between billable work delivered and invoices paid, hire-led and project-based.
- Creative & media — production funded up front, freelancers and kit to cover, settlement waited on.
- E-commerce & online — ad spend and inventory that pay back later, with platform payouts to wait on.
Or browse the whole set on the industries hub. Company and legal detail for the group lives on creditcorpgroup.co.uk.
Ready when you are
Whatever your tech company needs funding for, applying, drawing down and managing your account all happen on the lender’s site, credicorp.co.uk.