Every way a UK business can raise money, cheapest first
Most businesses hear of two or three ways to raise money, often from someone selling one of them. Fundladder sets out all 62, from getting customers to pay up front to listing on a stock market, in order of cost. It is free, it sells nothing, and every fact links to the page it came from.
Why it is needed
The cheapest money is the least advertised. Customer prepayments, supplier credit, HMRC Time to Pay and community lenders pay no one to send businesses their way; fast, expensive lenders do. A business that sees only the adverts pays more than it needs to.
It matters most after a bank says no. Responses to the government’s consultation on the Bank Referral Scheme said that roughly 5% of referred businesses go on to get finance elsewhere, and that businesses “needed further help in order to understand and improve their readiness for credit”. Fundladder is that help: what else there is, what each one really costs, and what to prepare.
Source: HM Treasury, government response on commercial credit data sharing and the Bank Referral Scheme (May 2026), paragraphs 4.2, 4.3 and 5.5 · checked 23 October 2026
What it does
- The ladderEvery route, rung by rung, from free or nearly free to fast and expensive.
- Your funding options9 questions. Each route comes back as fits, possible or unlikely, with the reason why.
- CalculatorsWhat a quote really costs: the APR worked out the FCA's way, invoice finance fees, dilution, R&D relief.
- Am I ready?What a lender or investor will ask for, as a checklist, so a business applies once and ready.
- ChecksA company's Companies House record, and whether a provider is on the FCA Register.
- WatchWhat is changing in law, tax and public schemes, in a short briefing twice a month.
Why you can rely on it
- Ordered by cost, not commission
- The order is set in code. No one can pay to be listed, moved up or left out, and there are no affiliate links.
- Every fact sourced and dated
- Primary sources only: GOV.UK, HMRC, the FCA, the British Business Bank, the law itself. Each route shows when it was last checked.
- Downsides as plain as upsides
- Every route shows its costs and risks at the same size as its benefits, next to them.
- Information, not advice
- Fundladder describes types of finance and what each asks for. It does not arrange or sell finance, and never says which to choose.
- Fixed rules, not guesswork
- Results come from published rules with tests. AI can help fill in the questions, but it never decides a result.
- Nothing stored
- No accounts, no cookies, no analytics. Answers stay in the browser.
See every source on one page at Sources, and every change to a route’s facts at What has changed.
For banks, public bodies and advisers
Fundladder can sit beside the help you already give: one link in a decline letter, a page on a Growth Hub site, or the questions gone through with a client. The tools stay exactly as they are, nothing a business types reaches you or us, and a trial costs nothing.
Who is behind it
Fundladder is operated by Avant Partners Limited. It earns nothing from any route or provider, and is not authorised by the FCA: it gives information, not advice.
Questions, corrections or a trial: data@fundladder.uk