Not-for-profit lender Purple Shoots seeks 10 'hidden' entrepreneurs with great business ideas

Purple Shoots, a not-for-profit lender, has helped hundreds of people start small businesses in Wales.

Now it is bringing the concept to South Yorkshire and has hired Richard Kirtley, formerly of Forgemasters, as its first divisional director.

Purple Shoots launched in 2013 after founder Karen Davies became frustrated at the number of people rejected for finance.

Working in the financial services industry in London and Wales she found herself saying ‘no’ to people who had viable business ideas because they didn’t have money to put in, a good enough credit score, or had a history of illness or disability.

She set up Purple Shoots to tackle disadvantage in communities ‘the public and private sectors were leaving behind’.

Since 2013 it has made more than 700 small loans averaging £2,500, helping 550 businesses start and 850 people move out of unemployment.

Some 96 per cent of clients were on benefits when they received a loan – and at least eight out of 10 of the businesses have ‘succeeded’, the organisation claims.

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Mr Kirtley’s first task is to find 10 ‘hidden’ entrepreneurs from South Yorkshire.

Aged 27, he joined after two years at Sheffield steel firm Forgemasters.

He had volunteered with Purple Shoots for almost a year and when a role was advertised he jumped at the chance.

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He said: “Many parts of South Yorkshire are similar to areas in Wales where Purple Shoots has helped people transform their lives by starting a business.

“If the bank can’t help you, we might be able to offer support and even an ethical loan – we love helping people make their ideas blossom.”

He added: “People sometimes say it’s easier for a huge business to borrow millions of pounds than for many folk to get a loan to start up.

“Micro-finance lets people create their own future and follow an entrepreneurial path.”

Purple Shoots’ model follows that established by Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi social entrepreneur who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering microcredit and microfinance.

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