Through the Culture and Creative Investment Programme, funded by the North East Combined Authority, we are investing £1.5m in loans in the region’s cultural and creative industries.
We are looking for commercially viable, growth-minded businesses that are innovative, operate in the creative and cultural sector, and able to deliver meaningful impact in the region.
We’re really excited about the opportunity that this loan offers for Arcus Studios to reach its potential. It will enable us to hone our sales and marketing skills and employ the right talent to allow us to expand and diversify our offer and well as ease capacity issues within the core team.
Creative UK have been a joy to work with and they relayed the procedures and applications in a non-daunting way that made the whole process so much easier! I would encourage any creative businesses in the region looking to address capacity issues or skills gaps, who just wish to expand their offer, to apply.
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Working with Matt [Browning, Head of Investment] it’s been a long-term relationship. You’re not in an organization which is of a size where you’re passed from pillar to post. For example, in a high street bank they might say ‘you’re not in the sub £100,000 revenue category now, you’re in the £5 million plus category so we’re going to pass you onto Corporate.’ It’s not like that; you know, Matt’s been there from the person we spoke to about borrowing £50,000 to the person who worked us through taking a million. That’s obviously rare and great to see and I think that it just goes to show what a great organizational culture you must have.
Introductions to clients have been made by Matt and the reporting feels human. If you’re not sure about something, you know you’re going to be able to speak to someone and that’s one of the great advantages. I would also say that because we have borrowed from a major high street bank, we know the differences from a mainstream lender and the relationship is very different.
