A Roundup of Businesses Transmit Start-Ups Supported in 2014 (Infographic)

2014 was a great year for Transmit Start-Ups and our Start Up Loans programme. We successfully funded 312 people across England and Scotland, with a total  borrowing of £2,096,646.

The 20-29 age group was supported more than others but it was great to see that eight people over 60 and nine teenagers took the plunge into the world of business!

One in every 6 entrepreneurs we supported last year are from Scotland, which is very encouraging given that the programme wasn't launched in Scotland until February 2014 (the whole Start Up Loans programme recently supported its 1000th Scottish entrepreneur making the total borrowing £3.7m).

Scottish Secretary Alistair Carmichael said: "It’s great to see so many enterprising Scots are making the most of the opportunities which schemes like Start Up Loans bring. Supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs and helping them to take their ideas from the drawing board to the boardroom is a major part of this government’s long term economic plan. Together with having access to a large domestic market and an extensive global trade network, schemes like the Start Up Loans give small Scottish businesses a great platform to grow and create more jobs."

This now takes the total number of entrepreneurs supported by Transmit Start-Ups on the Start Up Loans programme up to 561 (a 25% increase on 2013), with a total of £3,501,000 being borrowed. Across the whole UK, since the scheme was first introduced in England in 2012, 25,000 business have had loans approved, taking the total amount lent to new firms to nearly £130 million.

Our infographic gives you a further breakdown:

Reinforcing the Start Up Loans achievements are the stats from the national enterprise campaign, run by the Centre for Entrepreneurs think tank, which shows 581,173 businesses were registered with Companies House beating the previous record of 526,446 businesses recorded in 2013, and 484,224 in 2012.

“Starting a business is easier, quicker and cheaper than ever thanks to new technology” said serial entrepreneur Luke Johnson, Chairman of the Centre for Entrepreneurs. "Entrepreneurs have higher profiles than in the past and are seen as role models. Traditional jobs for life have largely disappeared, as have occupational pensions.”

Figures from the Office for National Statistics cited in the Sunday Times suggest that as well as the rise in start-ups, there has been a marked drop in the number of business failures. With the number of firms dropping out of the Companies House register falling 6%, from 253,000 to 238,000, last year.