Top UK tech startups can't access virus relief, Chancellor told

[LONDON] Chief executive officers and founders from a dozen of some of the UK's largest tech startups have warned their sector is at risk unless the government urgently changes its coronavirus stimulus package.

In a letter sent to UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak on Wednesday, startups including Deliveroo and Citymapper said they fall through the cracks of the more-than £330 billion (S$583.35 billion) Covid-19 rescue package pledged by the government last month.

The young, and in many cases loss-making companies say they can't qualify for corporate finance loans, which require mature credit ratings and high profits, but that they're also too big for small business relief.

"Our sector will be crucial to helping the UK economy bounce back quickly after the pandemic," the executives jointly wrote in the letter. "However, it has not yet received government support, unlike our competitors in France and Germany."

The letter is signed by the bosses of Babylon Healthcare Services, BenevolentAI, Blockchain Access UK, Bulb Energy, Citymapper, Darktrace, Deliveroo, Faculty Science, Five AI, GoCardless, Graphcore and Improbable Worlds.

They say the government's Covid Corporate Financing Facility, Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme and Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme are inaccessible.

The finance minister should "urgently set up a taskforce meeting" of companies and Treasury officials to work out how they and similar ventures can access government relief, they added.

Representatives for the Treasury didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

BLOOMBERG