Year in Review

The Nest Climbing

Fast access to funds enabled The Nest Climbing to expand its facilities in West London.

How we helped The Nest Climbing

The Nest Climbing in Hayes is more than a gym; it’s a London sanctuary where fitness meets community. Climbing enthusiasts Rob Lawley and Sam Hunter opened The Nest in 2019 to make climbing inclusive, and now the centre offers a welcoming space for bouldering, yoga, and connection. To fuel its growth, a £22,000 Funding Circle Term Loan provided essential funds to expand its facilities and add a cafe, ensuring it remains a supportive ‘nest’ for its vibrant and growing community.

Wick & Tallow Bespoke

How we helped Wick & Tallow Bespoke

Since launching in 2011, Wick & Tallow have grown from a Portobello Market stall into a bespoke luxury fragrance brand. Alice Malcolm Green’s vision to bring English eccentricity combined with operational agility to a traditional market has led to the brand successfully expanding beyond candles into home fragrance. Funding Circle has supported the business with three Term Loans since 2021 for growth, and since 2024 Alice and her partner James have been using FlexiPay to spread supplier payments for materials over several months, helping them to better manage cash flow, and enabling them to scale faster with confidence.

Frontier Energy

Funding Circle powers Frontier Energy's next chapter

Barnaby Black, an electrician with extensive experience in renewables – including six years building solar and battery back-up systems in Tanzania – co‑founded Frontier Energy in 2023. The company helps accelerate the UK’s green transition by designing and installing high quality domestic and commercial solar PV, battery storage, and electric vehicle charging solutions across the UK.

Frontier Energy’s mission delivers both social and environmental impact and is embedded in its product and its people. Beyond empowering its clients to lower their carbon footprints, the company actively employs and trains up local labour alongside its contractors and core team, ensuring it builds the skilled workforce required for the net zero economy. Frontier Energy’s work involves highly accredited installations, including large-scale commercial and agricultural solar projects, that drive down the UK’s energy dependence on fossil fuels.

Due to the high capital outlay and unpredictable nature of the market (which Barnaby refers to as the ‘solar coaster’), the business needed cash flow support. In 2024, Frontier Energy was approved for a loan from Funding Circle. This quick and straightforward finance helped smooth out the volatility, ensuring consistent operations, covering labour costs and allowing the directors to focus on securing their own larger commercial projects and developing their Operations and Maintenance services.