People’s Champion finalist 2016: Pure Commercial Finance

Start-up name: Pure Commercial Finance
Founder: Ben Lloyd
Started in: June 2013
Based in: Cardiff
Business description: Commercial finance broker

Shortlisted category:

Young Entrepreneur of the Year

The Pure Commercial story:

Commercial finance is a traditional market; therefore you would imagine it would be difficult for any newcomer to compete against established rival brokers. Well, not as far as Pure Commercial Finance is concerned.

Launched by 31-year-old Ben Lloyd in 2013, Cardiff-based Pure Commercial Finance has become one of the largest and fastest-growing commercial brokerage companies of its kind in the UK; with over £105m in finance secured against over £210m of property so far in 2016 alone.

A commercial financial specialist, Pure Commercial sources and arrange finance for uses such as property development, bridging finance, buy-to-let and commercial mortgages, and invoice finance.

Entirely self-funded and profitable, Pure Commercial works with over 100 lenders including high street banks, private funders and peer-to-peer platforms to provide “highly personalised deals”.

The business looks to help property investors, developers and business owners find the right deal for their current project and Lloyd says that part of the start-up’s success has been due to focusing on “long-term mutually beneficial relationships with clients”.

Lloyd also believes the business has been able to achieve scale by pursuing digital practices such as managing business online and using digital marketing campaigns to stand out – “the majority of rival brokers do not take advantage of the web”.

Having expanded the business to the Midlands and South East, and with the recent appointment of ex-HSBC and Barclays head of business development Peter Caldicott, Lloyd says Pure Commercial is in prime position to achieve more “ambitious goals”.

Why Pure Commercial made our shortlist:

Any business that can launch into a competitive market and become one of the frontrunners is impressive but this normally takes years if not decades to achieve – Pure Commercial has done just that in a mere three years. What’s more, the start-up has assisted in projects that were originally thought of as ‘unfundable’ such as The Tramshed in Cardiff and the historic Sunbeam motorcycle factory site in Wolverhampton.

Where to find out more about Pure Commercial:

Website: http://www.purecommercialfinance.co.uk
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/PureCommFinance