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£10m from the Start Up Loans programme has helped more than 1,000 Bedfordshire businesses on the road to success

Press release 05 December 2024

  • The Start Up Loans programme has delivered more than £10 million in loans to more than 1,000 small business founders in Bedfordshire
  • Mid Bedfordshire, North East Bedfordshire and Luton South revealed as Bedfordshire’s entrepreneurial hotspots.

Start Up Loans, part of the British Business Bank, today announces that it has provided £10 million of start up finance to more than one thousand small business founders in Bedfordshire.

All constituencies in Bedfordshire have received more than £1 million each, with the most finance going to business owners in Mid Bedfordshire. However, the highest number of loans went to Luton South-based business owners making it an entrepreneurial hotspot in Bedfordshire.

Loans to female-led start-ups made up 40% of the total loans issued to entrepreneurs in Bedfordshire. This broadly reflects the overall programme’s gender split while exceeding the level of female business ownership in the business population. Wider market data shows that, in 2022, 18% of smaller businesses with employees and 20% of smaller businesses without employees were female-led.

31% of loans in Bedfordshire went to non-white ethnic minorities, which significantly exceeds the level of non-white ethnic minority business ownership in the UK small business population. 6% of the UK’s small businesses with employees and 5% of those without employees are majority-led by people from a minority ethnic group.

One example of entrepreneurial spirit in Bedfordshire is Candice Mason, founder of Mother Cuppa in Tring. After years of battling endometriosis, Candice began home-brewing holistic teas to alleviate her symptoms and even trained to be a tea sommelier.

During the pandemic Candice experienced early menopause, leading to health challenges, at the same time lockdown had severely impacted her travel business. Candice then re-evaluated her career path and decided to found Mother Cuppa, a business dedicated to selling her bespoke teas to combat symptoms of female health issues. Mother Cuppa has gone from strength to strength, with orders quadrupling this year alone.

Candice Mason, founder of Mother Cuppa, Tring said:

After years of suffering due to female health issues, home-brewing my own tea to combat symptoms, the pandemic really made me stop and reevaluate my life path. It felt like a risk to start something new mid-life but this was something I really wanted to pursue as I am so passionate about women's health.

The funding I received was invaluable as I knew from the start this was a business I wanted to scale. The loan helped me invest in branding and creating quality but sustainable products and packaging. The coaching through the business plan was fantastic and I would really encourage others to consider Start Up Loans as a means to securing funding to follow your passions.

Louise McCoy, Commercial Managing Director, Small Business Lending at the British Business Bank said:

Reaching lending milestones gives us the perfect opportunity to celebrate the remarkable businesses that have flourished with the help of Start Up Loans. We are always pleased to see our lending to female entrepreneurs exceed the levels typically seen from other sources of start up finance and Candice is an outstanding example of someone who has truly excelled with our support.

Across the East of England region as a whole, over 8,600 aspiring entrepreneurs have taken out a Start Up Loan since 2012. These loans have amounted to over £89 million in funding, with an average loan value of £10,289.

To support smaller businesses, Start Up Loans has recently released The Essential Guide to Starting a Business which contains information for first time business owners to help them turn their business ideas into reality.

Mother Cuppa was supported by Start Up Loans’ Business Support Partner, British Enterprise Fund. As an official Business Support Partner for the British Business Bank’s Start Up Loan programme, British Enterprise Fund operates within a network of business support partners, delivering Start Up Loans in the range of £500 to £25,000 across the UK.

Further Information

If you are a journalist and have a media enquiry, please contact [email protected].

Notes to editors

Below is a breakdown of the top counties by volume of finance lent in the South East by Start Up loans to female founders since 2012. This includes the total number of loans, overall value, and average loan amount: 

ConstituenciesLoans MadeAmount Lent (£)Average Loan Amount (£)
Mid Bedfordshire1651,901,77111,525
North East Bedfordshire1751,882,39810,756
Luton South1901,833,6639,650
South West Bedfordshire1671,750,38510,481
Bedford1761,600,9309,096
Luton North1611,412,3778,772
Grand Total1,03410,381,52310,040

Individual constituency data for particular cities and localities is available on request. 

Additional Information 

The 2019 Rose Review found that up to £250 billion of new value could be added to the UK economy if women started and scaled new businesses at the same rate as UK men.

About Start Up Loans

The Start Up Loans programme is operated by The Start-Up Loans Company, a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and Wales, registration number 08117656, registered office at Steel City House, West Street, Sheffield, S1 2GQ. 

The Start-Up Loans Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of British Business Bank plc.   British Business Bank plc is a development bank wholly government-owned by DBT and is not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The British Business Bank and its subsidiary entities are not banking institutions and do not operate as such.

Free guides on a range of subjects related to starting a business are available on the Start Up Loans website. You can find recent media press releases here. 

The funding for the Start Up Loans programme is provided by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). 

Key Statistics

  • Since its inception in 2012, the Start Up Loans programme has delivered over 115,000 loans, providing more than £1.13bn of funding.
  • In the financial year 2023/24, the programme provided 9,759 loans with a total value of approximately £125m.
  • The economic benefits of the Start Up Loans programme are almost six (5.7) times its economic costs.
  • Since 2012, 31% of loans went to people formerly unemployed or economically inactive. 40% of loan recipients were women and 20% were from ethnic minority groups (not including white minorities).

Aside from the return-on-investment numbers these statistics are gross estimates and based on Start Up Loans CRM along with externally commissioned research undertaken by SQW Ltd, with support from BMG Research.

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