Coast to Capital: Backing Business Grants

Backing Business Grants

The Coast to Capital Backing Business Grants is a £2 million fund that has been set up to provide grants to small businesses and social enterprises in our area who have been affected by COVID-19.

Update 2/4/20

Due to the overwhelmingly positive response from local businesses, Coast to Capital are pausing acceptance of new applications for our Backing Business Grants from Thursday 2 April.

If you have already submitted an eligibility checklist, a member of their team will be in touch to advise on your application.

Going forward, they will continue to accept eligibility checklists which will be added to a waiting list in the event that future funds become available.

Find out more on the Coast to Capital site

Applying for a grant

You can apply for a grant of £5,000-£25,000 to fund specific measures to help you to adapt, evolve and innovate to the various economic impacts brought about by the pandemic.

You can apply if you are a business or social enterprise and meet all of the following criteria:

• Based in West Sussex, Brighton & Hove, or East Surrey (Epsom and Ewell, Mole Valley, Reigate and Banstead, Tandridge);
• 5-50 FTE (full time equivalent) workforce;
• Been trading for over 2 years;
• Have an annual turnover of under £10m.

Applicants must use the grant to implement one or more of the following measures:

• Adapt their operations to remote working. This might include acquisition of computer hardware or software or other physical measures to support the separation of staff and deliver sustained operations;
• Evolve their business model to boost and retain cash-flow. This might include firms which are no longer able to sell directly to customers and need to add new delivery or marketing functions;
• Innovate their business model to meet the new demands of consumers during the COVID-19 scenario.

The grant is available for all sectors. The grant awarded does not have to be matched funded and can be for 100% of the cost of the investment or used with the businesses own funds to deliver the proposed outcome(s).

The grants will be made available on a first-come-first-served basis.

Find out more on the Coast to Capital site

Coast to Capital reserve the right to change the grant criteria and/or process at any time.