BOOST&Co (now Growth Lending)
UK specialist venture debt and growth capital lender to B2B technology and innovation SMEs, operating since 2011 and now part of the Growth Lending Group.
What they do
BOOST&Co provides venture debt and growth capital term loans to high-growth UK SMEs — principally B2B technology businesses — that are beyond early validation but may be pre-profit. Facilities typically run from £1m to £10m, structured as term loans with a 12-month interest-only period followed by 12–24 months of amortisation, secured by a debenture and accompanied by an equity warrant (typically sized at 10–15% of the loan amount). The firm also offers bridge facilities for short-term M&A or refinancing needs, and acquisition loans. Since 2020 it has operated as part of the Growth Lending Group, which added working capital products via acquisitions of GapCap and KX Media Capital, and the group brand is now Growth Lending.
Where they fit in a lower-mid-market raise
The natural fit is a B2B technology or innovation business with at least £2m in contracted or recurring annual revenue, a functioning product, and an established customer base — but one that is not yet fully profitable and wants to avoid equity dilution. BOOST&Co bridges the gap between the last equity round and profitability: working capital for scale-up, R&D investment, or M&A. Within Solon's 3–15m corridor, BOOST&Co competes in the £3m–£10m band for the right borrower profile. The equity warrant makes them economically equivalent to a mezzanine provider in some transactions; advisers should model total cost of capital accordingly rather than treating the interest rate as the only cost.
Where they are not the fit
They are not a fit for asset-heavy or capital-light businesses without recurring/contracted revenue; businesses below the £2m revenue floor; traditional manufacturing or property; consumer-facing companies; any borrower that cannot demonstrate a credible path to profitability; or borrowers uncomfortable with granting equity warrants. Also not appropriate where a full equity raise or asset-based facility would be more efficient — the equity kicker materially increases total cost of capital relative to a straight senior loan.
Published terms
- Pricing
- Per-deal; growth-debt category norm ~400-500 bps over base + fees (1-7%) + warrants (~3-5%) - fund pricing above bank senior
- Speed to terms
- Not published
- Sponsored or sponsorless
- Both - VC-equity-backed and founder/owner-managed scaling SMEs; non-dilutive complement to equity; not a private equity-LBO sponsor lender specifically
- Where they lend
- UK-wide (also some Europe)
- How they decide
- Asset-manager an investment committee model; regional offices (London/Manchester/Leeds/Birmingham/Bristol/Cambridge); an investment committee cadence not published
- Covenants
- A loose covenant package
- Personal guarantee
- Not typically required on the published terms: Growth Lending states personal guarantees are rarely required on its term loans
As published by the lender and last reviewed July 2026. Terms quoted on a deal are set by the credit, not by a published band.
What rules a deal out
Stated limits, taken from BOOST&Co (now Growth Lending)’s own published criteria. A limit is where a lender starts from, not where it always ends: several of these move on a strong enough credit.
- Revenue >£3m typical
- Beyond startup phase required
- Revenue/ARR-led not EBITDA-multiple
- Revenue >£2m (growth credit) or >£3m (term loans); UK-registered; 12+ months trading; B2B model required
- No appetite in distressed, pre-revenue startups or property
How they sit against the category
- Its published ceiling is £15m; 25 of the 46 private-credit funds here go at least as high.
- It opens lower than almost all of them, at £250k.
- 15 of the 46 publish an indicative price at all; it is one of them.
Counted across the 46 private-credit & direct-lending funds in this directory, on what each one publishes. What a lender discloses and what it will do are different things.
Questions this page answers
How large a facility does BOOST&Co (now Growth Lending) write?
Published facilities run £250k to £15m. A band is what a lender states it will do, not what it will do on a given credit.
Does BOOST&Co (now Growth Lending) lend to companies without a private-equity sponsor?
Yes. BOOST&Co (now Growth Lending) lends to owner-managed and sponsor-backed borrowers alike, so a company with no private-equity backer is not out of scope on that ground.
Where does BOOST&Co (now Growth Lending) lend?
BOOST&Co (now Growth Lending) lends in UK-wide (also some Europe).
What covenants does BOOST&Co (now Growth Lending) set?
A loose covenant package. A covenant package is negotiated on the facility; the published style is where the negotiation starts.
What does BOOST&Co (now Growth Lending) lend?
The published product set is growth / term debt. Published sector focus is b2b, cleantech, hardware, high growth tech, internet.
Does BOOST&Co (now Growth Lending) require a personal guarantee?
Rarely, on its own published terms. Growth Lending states that personal guarantees are rarely required, because it lends against enterprise value, recurring revenue and cash flow.
On the record
BOOST&Co Limited incorporated 3 August 2011; Companies House number 07728296; status Active; SIC 64303 (Activities of venture and development capital companies); registered office 19th Floor, 1 Westfield Avenue, London E20 1HZ.
Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority; FCA reference number 711918.
British Business Investments committed £50m to BOOST&Co's second fund, Industrial Lending II s.a., in May 2019, following a fully-invested first fund (Industrial Lending I) in which BBI had committed £40m across 37 high-growth SMEs.
BOOST&Co's Industrial Lending I fund provided venture debt of £2m–£8m to innovative, fast-growing companies; the fund made total commitments of approximately £100m across 33–37 UK SMEs.
Under the Growth Lending brand, the firm provides growth credit of £2m to £10m to UK-registered B2B businesses with revenues above £2m and a trading history of more than 12 months, drawn in tranches over a term typically of three to five years and secured by a debenture.
Growth Lending targets high-quality growth companies in software, telecommunications, financial services, business services, life sciences and national security, typically with revenues between £5m and £50m.
In 2020, BOOST&Co acquired GapCap and KX Media Capital, consolidating three brands under the Growth Lending Group; the entity now operates publicly as Growth Lending.
Sources: growthlending.com · uk.linkedin.com
This profile is a curated reference note drawn from public sources, not financial advice or a recommendation. Appetite and terms change; a lender's fit for a given credit is established by approaching it, not inferred from a page.