As we settle into 2023, most people are looking forward. New Year, new projects, new beginnings. We’ve got plenty of that going on, but it’s also a good time to reflect. Hexa turned two last year.
We’ve come a long way in those two years. And we’ve had some time to reflect on the journey. So much has happened, it’s hard to believe that we only started in 2020. In a challenging business landscape, we’ve had the drive and the support to enter the UK finance market with a bang and some brilliant minds have joined the team.
With two years down, now’s a good time to look back on the story so far. Here’s a quick Q&A with our founders Ben and Stu, discussing the highlights, the lowlights and what’s in store for Hexa.
Why did you set up Hexa?
After successful asset finance careers working at some of the largest UK based global lenders and independent finance companies, we decided to take the plunge and set up our own business, Hexa Finance, in November 2020. It might seem crazy to set up a business during Covid, but it was vitally important for us to use our expertise to help clients navigate an ever-changing lending landscape.
What’s Hexa all about?
At Hexa, we provide a range of outsourced and consultancy services that help support equipment suppliers and lenders deploy finance as a key part of our go-to-market strategy. These services play a pivotal role in helping ensure the suppliers have the right funding partners and expertise in their business to support growth.
In a market that is full of liquidity, we’re also passionate about directly supporting SMEs across a broad range of industries access the right type of finance products to meet their objectives.
What have been the main highlights over the past 2 years?
Like many new businesses that started during Covid, we definitely took advantage of home working with our first office – a modest log cabin in Ben’s Garden. We utilised this to our advantage, keeping our cost base low in the early days. This enabled us to focus on executing our business plan and support our clients at the time they needed it most. In July 2021 the team grew by one with the arrival of Adrian Monger into the role of Associate Director, which enabled Hexa to dramatically increase the service we could offer our clients.
In the first 12 months of business, Hexa supported over 600 SMEs across 27 different industry sectors access business critical funding and firmly cement ourselves as one of the most innovative and progressive new entrants to the UK finance market. In early 2022, the business started on a period of growth with an additional two heads in the form of Alex and Zach and an exciting move to their first office at Merlin House in Langstone.
While Hexa provide funding to a broad range of UK businesses, there was significant growth in our local direct business, which culminated in the team winning B2B Services Start Up of The Year Award for the region of Wales, something we and the team are immensely proud of.
With the arrival of Joanne in July 2022, the original Hexa 6 was formed and the team at the time of writing this blog, are well on our way to achieving our plans of supporting over 2500 SME clients with funding inside our first two years.
What have been some of the challenges you’ve faced? and how have they shaped Hexa?
As a service business, our team are focused on making sure their skills are directly benefitting their clients at every stage of the finance process. This meant that the team had some difficult decisions to make in the early days when it came to outsourcing key functions to other local businesses – our Hextensions. There was also the challenge of managing an ever-changing lending panel and making sure the right funding was available for our clients.
Key moments that have allowed the team/company to grow?
- Promoting outsourcing to our clients but also embracing that as a concept in our own business to ensure we have the right expertise and partnerships to grow.
- Sticking to our business plan when a vast amount of government lending was available has helped us define our place in the market and provide certainty for our clients.
- Moving into our first office has given the perfect environment for the team to grow and collaborate.
- The launch of our Hexacademy has been the perfect way to train and develop our staff and serve as a blueprint for attracting the very best local talent in the market.
Where will Hexa be in another 2 years time?
With Brexit, Covid, the war in Ukraine and cost of living crisis amongst other things it has certainly been an eventful first two years in business. At no point during these two years has the team moved from our business plan, and we are positioned extremely well for future growth.
Fundamental to this growth has been the excellent team spirit within Hexa but also the support of many trusted partners and clients that fully support Hexa’s purpose. There is no ceiling to what the Hexa team can achieve and over next two years we will maintain focused on providing smarter lending solutions to businesses.
As for 2023, it’s already looking promising. We’ve added another fantastic recruit, Sharon, and we’re also nominated for two awards. Here’s to the rest of the year ahead!