UK entrepreneur and Bounce Funding founder Matt Travis is entering the next phase of his business journey following the £4.75 million acquisition of Bounce Funding by Hampshire Accountants, bringing together SME finance, accountancy and advisory services with ambitious plans for growth across the UK, Australia and Asia.
Hampshire Accountants has acquired Bounce Funding in a £4.75 million transaction, bringing the UK business finance specialist into a growing professional-services group with ambitions spanning the UK, Australia and Asia.
Founded by British entrepreneur Matt Travis, Bounce Funding has developed its business around helping UK SMEs access funding through a broad network of lenders and finance providers, while building strong relationships with accountants and professional advisers.
The acquisition marks the next stage in the development of both businesses and is intended to create a more connected model combining accountancy, commercial advice and access to business finance.
Connecting accounting and business finance
A central part of the strategy is a simple idea: accountants are often uniquely positioned to understand when their clients need capital.
Through their understanding of a company’s accounts, cash flow, tax position and growth plans, accountants can often identify a funding requirement before a business owner begins actively searching for finance.
The combined group intends to connect that financial insight with Bounce Funding’s business finance capabilities.
Matt Travis, founder of Bounce Funding, said:
“Over the years I’ve become increasingly convinced that accounting and business finance should be much more closely connected.
“Accountants understand their clients’ businesses incredibly well. They see the numbers, understand the cash flow and know when a business is preparing to grow.
“If you can combine that knowledge with access to the right capital at the right time, you have the opportunity to become a genuine growth partner rather than simply another service provider.
“This acquisition allows us to start building that model at a much greater scale.”
Building on Bounce Funding’s growth
Travis has worked within business funding for more than a decade and founded Bounce Funding to help SMEs navigate an increasingly diverse business finance market.
The business has developed relationships across business lending and specialist finance, with accountant partnerships becoming an increasingly important part of its distribution strategy.
Under Hampshire Accountants, the ambition is to expand that model by connecting clients with accounting, tax, advisory and finance expertise within the wider group.
Funding solutions available to businesses can include working capital, business loans, asset finance, invoice finance, commercial property finance and other specialist facilities.
The aim is not simply to introduce more finance products, but to use a deeper understanding of each business to help identify when and where additional capital could support its objectives.
UK growth and international ambitions
The UK will remain a major focus for the combined business, with plans to continue expanding relationships with SMEs, accountants and professional advisers.
However, the strategy also has a significant international dimension.
Hampshire Accountants is developing its Australian operations with ambitions to establish a multi-city presence across Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth.
The Australian proposition is expected to include accounting, bookkeeping, payroll, tax compliance, tax planning, business advisory and virtual CFO services.
Over time, the group intends to explore how the accounts-to-finance model being developed in the UK can also form part of its Australian offering.
Singapore is also expected to play an important role in the group’s longer-term international strategy, acting as a strategic base for developing relationships and opportunities across Asia.
For Travis, the international strategy represents a natural evolution from building a UK-focused SME funding business towards helping develop a broader professional-services platform.
Travis added:
“The opportunity internationally is incredibly exciting.
“We’re looking at how we can take the things we’ve learned from building Bounce in the UK and combine them with a much broader professional-services offering.
“Australia is a major focus for us, and Singapore gives us a natural gateway into Asia.
“The long-term ambition is to build a group capable of supporting entrepreneurs across different markets while keeping accounting, advice and access to capital connected.”
A broader growth platform for SMEs
Hampshire Accountants provides accounting and advisory services including accounting, bookkeeping, payroll, tax and CFO support.
The addition of Bounce Funding is intended to broaden that proposition and give clients access to specialist business finance expertise within the wider group.
The businesses believe the combination can create a model where financial information is not simply used to report what has already happened, but to help businesses decide what they can do next.
Whether that means opening another location, investing in equipment, recruiting employees, acquiring another company or strengthening working capital, access to finance can often determine whether an opportunity becomes reality.
The combined group intends to position itself alongside SMEs throughout that process.
Matt Travis is a British entrepreneur and founder of Bounce Funding. He has worked within business funding for more than a decade, specialising in helping SMEs access finance and developing relationships between business owners, lenders, accountants and professional advisers.
Following the acquisition of Bounce Funding by Hampshire Accountants, Travis is focused on the next phase of the group’s growth and the development of an integrated accounting, advisory and business finance proposition across the UK and internationally.
Bounce Funding is a UK business finance specialist helping SMEs access funding through a broad range of lenders and finance providers. The company works directly with businesses as well as through a growing network of accountants and professional advisers.
Hampshire Accountants provides accounting, bookkeeping, payroll, tax, business advisory and CFO services. The group is developing its UK operations alongside an international growth strategy focused on Australia and Asia.
