Access to Finance in partnership with Barclays: an overview of the three events

During November and the start of this month, Ukie teamed up with Barclays to deliver three Access to Finance sessions, bringing together financial experts and games businesses to think about their investments, access to funding and resilience for the upcoming year.

Our first session hosted online was simply – access to finance. For many games businesses, especially those early in their growth, it can be difficult to know where funding can be accessed and how to apply. Barclays explained how to access VGTR while Harbottle & Lewis discussed Angel, Venture Capital and governmental funding. We then had a fantastic panel of three studios – Arrogant Pixel, Glitchers and Sketchbook Games who discussed their journey with business funding, which by they end they ended up helping each other in addition to the audience! Certainly one of the most entertaining panels you’ll probably find on the internet about business funding for games.

Check out the full webinar here: https://youtube.com/live/wJnQkCi41UU?feature=share

Our second session hosted in Barclays Moorgate London, focussed on long-term investments. We had talks from the London Stock Exchange about floating on the stock exchange, Barclays and Harbottle & Lewis discussed one of the biggest topics in the industry – mergers and acquisitions. Our session finished with a cosy chat with Nick Button-Brown from Laughing Pig.

If you couldn’t attend, never fear, you can watch the whole session here: https://youtube.com/live/6XQNx4ojunA?feature=share

Finally, we went back online to discuss how potential economic turmoil may affect games business. We invited Savills who discussed the future of a physical office, spoiler, location is more important than ever when thinking hybrid work. Before moving onto Connor Broadly who discussed how businesses could use employee benefits to increase staff financial and general wellbeing. Finally, Barclays and Kriya (previously Market Finance) talked about debt management and FX.

Check out the full session here: https://youtube.com/live/TmiawOFkCvM?feature=share

Thank you to everyone who attended. A key take away from this series is don’t be afraid to talk about finances. There are many companies out there to assist when you don’t know where to start or what do, certainly reach out if you need assistance or guidance. Coming soon is an Access to Finance guide from Harbottle & Lewis which will be shared widely on Ukie networks.