SWIG Finance funding boost for sustainability consultants Future Leap

By Peter Davison

18 May 2023

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The Business Magazine article image for: SWIG Finance funding boost for sustainability consultants Future Leap

Tom Batten, head of consultancy, Fenna Leake, managing director, Molly Byrne, business development director, Katherine Piper, director of partnerships and sustainability, Dan Proctor, Future Leap finance director, Damon Lisseman financial controller

Bristol-based network and consultancy business Future Leap, which helps other businesses become more sustainable, has received a £250,000 funding boost through SWIG Finance.

Future Leap, which has two innovative and collaborative workspaces in Bishopston and Clifton, is expanding to a new site in the Bath area in response to the growing demand for its services.

Founded by entrepreneur Alan Bailey in 2005, Future Leap was established to provide the business community with sustainable physical workspaces, alongside a support network helping businesses to develop more sustainable processes and practices. It is now one of the largest green networks in the UK.

Future Leap is managed by Fenna Leake, who joined the company in 2020 as Product Coordinator and now spearheads the business. It currently has 22 employees, and this funding will help create 9 more jobs.

Future Leap was introduced to SWIG Finance via Dan Proctor, director at their sister company, Future Leap Finance, which helps businesses to source the finance they need to implement the changes needed to reach Net Zero.

Managing director Fenna said “This funding will help the business grow at a much quicker pace. Future Leap’s mission is to help other organisations to become more sustainable.

"By expanding our in-house team, and our operational capacity with new sites, we can support even a greater number of businesses with tackling the climate emergency and planning for net zero.

"This impact of this funding will have a far-reaching and hugely positive knock-on effect across the region”.

Dan Proctor of Future Leap Finance commented: “Having been lending for over 20 years, I am pleased to say that the funding process at SWIG Finance exceeded our expectations from every angle.

"Our business manager, Jordan, provided us with an excellent customer experience from start to finish – we were really impressed with the level of service and the speed of delivery”.

SWIG Finance business manager, Jordan Berg, led the deal. He added “Future Leap is a well-respected and highly regarded organisation in the Bristol area and this funding will play a pivotal role in helping them scale up their operations. The business has an extremely strong management team and I was delighted to support them with their funding journey.”

By Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country.

An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts.

Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.