The Department for International Trade supports small to medium businesses (SMEs) to develop their international sales. They have a team of International Trade Advisers (ITAs) across the country with a breadth of experience across sectors and specialisms who provide support to businesses through services tailored to their needs.
They recently launched the DIT Internationalisation Fund to support eligible businesses in England with match funded grants of between £1,000 and £9,000 are available for future activity (subject to eligibility and availability).
To secure a grant, you’ll need to fund a proportion of your costs yourself. This varies according to where your business is based and will be either 40 or 50% of the total cost.
The fund can be used to support areas including (but not exclusively limited to:
- Market research
- IP advice
- Translation services
- International social media/SEO
- Trade fairs (were no TAP funding is available) *
- Independent market visits
- Consultancy and other international commercial services
Eligibility
- The company must be based in England
- The company must be a small or medium sized enterprise (SME) with up to 250 employees
- No more than 25% of the business is owned by an enterprise which is not a SME
- Annual turnover does not exceed €50 million or annual balance sheet does not exceed €43 million
- The fund is supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
* The Tradeshow Access Programme (TAP) provides funding in the form of grants for eligible businesses to attend overseas trade shows.
This grant could provide valuable support in your journey to exporting and we can assist in your funding requirements alongside your local International Trade Adviser, some of whom we have worked with in the past.
General Export Facility news
We featured this product in an article earlier this year and UK Export Finance (UKEF)have announced the first company to benefit from this facility. An exporter based in the West Midlands has secured funding from HSBC, guaranteed by UKEF which will provide working capital and guarantees to support its growth overseas.
A great example of how the scheme can help businesses achieve growth in existing and new markets.
Through GEF, UKEF can guarantee 80% of any facility offered by a bank to finance the costs of exporting. It means financial support, should be much easier to access for smaller UK businesses with global ambitions. Whilst the main high street banks are approved lenders under the scheme, more lenders are needed to join to allow it to reach SMEs currently unable to access this type of funding.
UKEF have a team of experienced Export Finance Managers located across the country to assist businesses looking to export and requiring access to finance and we have worked with them in helping businesses accessing finance either under UKEF schemes or with other funders.
by Diane Davies,
Senior Commercial Manager at Snowball Group
e: dianedavies@snowballgroup.co.uk
t: 07735 495068