British Business Bank has expanded the finance facility for specialist lender Time Finance, with an additional £29.4m ($37.3m) funding to support UK small businesses. 

The addition of £29.4m in funding, through the ENABLE Funding programme, now brings the total funding available to smaller businesses to £64.4m from the previous £35m. 

Leveraging this additional funding, Time Finance aims to enhance its pipeline and increase its own-book origination, allowing for a broader provision of asset finance to UK small businesses.  

The initial £35m transaction, which was agreed upon in March 2018, was channelled through Time Finance’s wholly owned subsidiary, Time Hard Asset Finance. 

It was instrumental in expanding Time Finance’s asset finance lending, particularly for hard asset finance in the UK small business sector, which involves equipment retaining value after use. 

With the latest increase, the ENABLE Funding facility will also be extended to Time Vendor Finance, another subsidiary of Time Finance, to finance a wider array of assets such as soft assets. 

British Business Bank said that this move aligns with its goal of fostering sustainable growth by enhancing the finance supply and diversifying the finance market for UK smaller businesses.  

Time Finance CFO James Roberts said: “Over the past five years, we have developed a strong working relationship with the British Business Bank, and I am delighted this will now be able to continue for the foreseeable future.  

“The enhanced facility will enable Time Finance to provide UK businesses with further funding for their business-critical equipment in one of our more secured and key strategic growth areas.” 

Initiated in 2014, the ENABLE Funding programme warehouses newly originated finance receivables from participating originators.  

It aims to refinance on the capital markets once the portfolio reaches a substantial scale, assisting smaller finance providers in accessing institutional investors’ funds.