Strata is a group of like minded seasoned professionals and trusted partners, with backgrounds in banking, accountancy and finance.
We recognise that under the stress of trying to service debt and run a business, most businesses are profitable and sustainable. Behind the debt there are people, livelihoods and mortgages to support also.
Strata Finance exists to give businesses an escape route from stacked short-term debt. I suppose we are the “trusted tradesmen trying to repair the botch job”.
Our approach, like the geological layers our name is drawn from, is to rebuild your finances as a single, stable structure.
We look to consolidate multiple high cost facilities into a longer term, lower cost solution, properly matched to what your business can actually afford to repay.
We do this through four core stages:
Fig. 02 — Post-Completion
Why Strata
For many businesses carrying stacked short-term debt, outstanding tax liabilities (VAT, PAYE/CIS, or Corporation Tax) are often part of the picture too. Left unresolved, HMRC arrears can block access to the very refinancing that would solve the problem, because most funders will not lend to a business with live tax debt, where HMRC could distrain on assets or commence insolvency proceedings. That's why, at Strata, resolving HMRC arrears is the essential first layer of the solution — not an afterthought.
Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs) are specialist, mission-driven lenders that provide finance to businesses which mainstream banks and traditional lenders typically turn away. These often include businesses recovering from a period of financial distress. CDFIs assess applications on the real, underlying viability of a business, not just a credit score or a standard risk-scoring model. For a business carrying stacked short-term debt, this makes CDFIs a genuinely realistic route to longer-term, lower-cost refinancing — provided the application is put together properly.
Refinancing stacked, high-cost debt into one affordable facility solves the immediate problem but it's only the foundation. Once that foundation is in place, many businesses need further, targeted funding to support day-to-day working capital or to fund growth. Trying to fund this with more short-term, high-cost borrowing is exactly the trap Strata exists to help businesses escape. That's why, where appropriate, we arrange additional facilities alongside your core refinance properly structured, and suited to their actual purpose, rather than another expensive stop-gap loan.
An integrated forecast links together the three core financial statements so that they tell one consistent story with Profit & Loss forecast, Balance Sheet forecast, Cashflow forecast. Then CFADS (Cash Flow available for Debt Service) and DSC (Debt Service Cover) statements are then derived to prove that the funding structure fits within the lenders parameters.
Free Diagnostic Tools
Three quick tools to give you an honest, indicative picture before you talk to anyone. All figures are estimates only, not a lending decision.
A fast, indicative read on where you'd likely sit against typical CDFI / British Business Bank-backed scheme criteria.
Your indicative result will appear here.
See what consolidating your current commitments into a single facility could do to your monthly cashflow.
Your indicative comparison will appear here.
A rough monthly installment estimate for spreading outstanding HMRC arrears — the first step before most lenders will consider you.
Your indicative installment will appear here.
Start The Conversation
Every enquiry is reviewed directly — no call centre, no generic script. If we can't help, we'll tell you straight.
A member of the Strata Finance team will be in touch shortly, usually within one working day.
