SWIG Finance Lends £18.4m in Record Year, Backing Cornwall Firms

A Cornwall business that flies drones over farmland launched on the back of a £51,000 loan. It is one of more than 500 small firms backed over the past year by a lender whose head office sits just outside Truro, and which most people in the county have probably never heard of.

That lender is SWIG Finance, and it has just published its 2025/26 impact report. The headline is a record year.

A record year for a Truro CDFI

SWIG Finance is the South West’s dedicated Community Development Finance Institution, a CDFI, which is a not-for-profit lender that backs small businesses that struggle to get funding elsewhere. Lending decisions are based on potential rather than collateral, which is how it ends up supporting firms that high street banks turn away.

Over the 2025/26 year it lent more than £18.4 million to small businesses across the South West. That money went to over 500 businesses and, according to the report, generated more than £95.2 million in social value.

The lending split two ways. Business Loans accounted for £10.4 million and helped to create and safeguard 1,134 jobs. Start Up Loans made up a further £8 million and helped to get 404 new businesses off the ground.

SWIG says 36% of its lending went to female-led businesses and 19% to businesses led by people from ethnic minorities. A further 22% went to firms in some of the most deprived parts of the region. Across three years, the running total now stands at £47.2 million lent through 1,778 loans.

A change at the top

2025/26 was also a year of change inside SWIG. John Peters retired as managing director after leading the organisation since 2013 and being part of the wider SWIG Group since 1998. Matthew Wilde stepped into the role.

“2025/26 has been a significant year for SWIG Finance, both in the scale of our lending and the depth of our impact across the South West,” Wilde said. He pointed to plans to bring in the British Business Bank’s Community ENABLE Funding programme and improve the technology behind the lending process.

Chair Rebecca Pritchard put the focus on that social value figure. “In 2025/26, SWIG’s work generated more than £95 million in social value, an achievement that would not be possible without the passion and dedication of SWIG colleagues,” she said.

Where some of it landed closer to home

SWIG is a not-for-profit distributing company, which means its profits are reinvested rather than paid out. It also gives to charity, and this year one of those recipients was Pentreath, a Cornwall mental health charity, which received a £200 donation to help people who struggle to access basic needs.

The lender works alongside funders including the British Business Bank, Social Investment Scotland, Better Society Capital and Triodos, and runs offices in Truro, Exeter, Bristol and Poole.

Two Cornwall firms in the figures

Among the businesses singled out in the report are two from Cornwall.

Horizon Agri Ltd delivers agricultural services using drone technology. It launched with a £51,000 package from SWIG, made up of a £25,000 Start Up Loan and a £26,000 Business Loan, which went on equipment.

“SWIG Finance played a key role in helping us turn an idea into a functioning business,” said founder Seamus McGuinness. “Their support allowed us to invest in the right equipment from day one, which has put Horizon Agri Ltd in a strong position to deliver real value to farmers and landowners.”

The other is Hungry Tomato, a children’s non-fiction publisher that took a £132,000 Business Loan as working capital to support international expansion. Managing director Sharon Twiggs said high street banks tend to undervalue the thing her business is built on.

“Banks are less likely to value intellectual property as security, but it’s worth more than anything else in our business,” she said. “Without the funding, we would be a doing a third of the business we are now.”