RAISING CAPITAL A GUIDE FOR ENTREPRENEURS

RAISING CAPITAL A GUIDE FOR ENTREPRENEURS

Your company is as unique

as its growth journey

The global community of 
entrepreneurs and business 
founders is the bedrock upon 
which economies thrive. 
Our role is to support you by 
facilitating access to the capital 
you need to grow your business 
and to enable you to succeed.
Whether your company is a start-up, a unicorn or in a 
phase beyond, it needs tailored support at each stage 
of its development. For your company to succeed, 
access to the right kind of funding throughout its 
growth journey is vital.
At the London Stock Exchange, we seek to enable 
more efficient access to capital and liquidity for private 
and public companies across the funding continuum.
This guide highlights what your company’s path to 
IPO could look like as part of your growth journey.

Ensuring that entrepreneurs across the world have access to the 
capital they need to grow their businesses at every stage is a priority 
of the London Stock Exchange.

THE FUNDING CONTINUUM

Questions to ask about funding
− What do we need funding for?
− What type of funding best suits our strategy 
and stage of development? 
− What funding do we need now, and what do 
we need in the future? 
− How might additional funding accelerate our 
growth strategy? 

For companies at the start of their journey, 
funding often starts close to home, with 
founders securing loans from friends and 
family members to top up whatever they 
can raise from bank overdrafts, loans and 
credit cards.
Other sources of finance they could explore at an 
early stage include crowdfunding, peer-to-peer 
finance, venture capital and angel investors.
As companies grow, they may be eligible for grants from 
local or national government bodies such as Innovate 
UK. The London Stock Exchange and Innovate UK 
have joined forces to create the ‘Invest in Innovation 
Partnership’. This will help the UK’s most innovative 
companies navigate opportunities across public and 
private sources of funding, and aims to unlock more 
of the £6 trillion of long-term capital available in the 
UK in the form of pensions, insurance assets and retail 
investment for UK innovation and growth.
During the more developed stages of growth, 
companies may consider an IPO.
Whatever their stage of maturity, at the London Stock 
Exchange, we are passionate about supporting 
companies to access the capital they need to achieve 
their ambitions and make an economic impact. 

RAISING CAPITAL A GUIDE FOR ENTREPRENEURS