The SME sector has been through a turbulent period over the past ten years, to put it mildly. A long recession made consolidation a priority over growth for many SMEs for a long period of time. Finance was a considerable problem; the banks were not lending and companies were being starved of funds in a world that had yet to see a developed alternative business finance market. However, as the recession ended, there became a growth in exciting new options for finance, from equity-based crowdfunding to peer-to-peer loans to invoice finance.