Achi news desk-
The recruitment will support a drive for growth by OJE Studios, which provides services ranging from music and video production to photography.
Mr Etherington-Brown has moved the company’s music production studio from Dundee to Edinburgh under the scheme.
The 19-year-old recently quit his job as a full-time software engineer to focus on developing OJE, which he set up last year with £10,000 seed funding from the bank.
“The funding from the Start Up Loans program was central to getting our studio to this stage,” said Mr Etherington-Brown. “When I first started, it was just me and my idea, and it’s been great to see the business come to life.”
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Launching the business has involved harnessing the skills of photographers, videographers and editors to create what Mr Etherington-Brown described as “amazing content” spanning promotional photography, short films and music videos.
“We want to showcase the smaller and lesser known parts of Edinburgh – from nightlife and restaurants to artists and independent venues,” he said.
The bank noted that that OJE has supported many community projects with videography and photography. He referred to the Spit It Out Festival, which tries to bring together people from marginalized communities who have experienced discrimination due to mental illness, and the Movement club night.
The loan to OJE takes the total provided to Edinburgh companies by the British Business Bank under the start-up loan program to £10 million.
The bank’s Barry McCulloch said the level of demand for money shown showed the city’s entrepreneurial spirit.
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He said creative businesses such as OJE Studios serve important cultural functions while creating jobs and attracting investment to the sector.
“Since the launch of the programme, we have supported smaller businesses across a diverse range of sectors and this milestone highlights the success of the scheme in improving access to finance across all parts of the UK,” said Mr McCulloch.
The bank has provided 7,185 Start-Up loans worth a total of £67 million in Scotland. A business can benefit from a number of loans.
He said the Start Up Loans scheme had provided over 105,000 loans across the UK, and provided more than £1bn of funding. Research for the bank found that 31% of loans went to people who were unemployed or economically inactive. 40% of loan recipients were women and 20% from minority ethnic groups (excluding white minorities).
The bank had provided a total of £441m to 6,121 businesses in Scotland under all its programs by December 31.
Around 90,201 companies in the UK had benefited from a total of £12.4bn of bank funding by the end of the year.
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The lender describes itself as the UK’s economic development bank. It was established in 2014 by the Government led by David Cameron to support access to finance for smaller businesses across the UK.
The bank has developed a range of programs to be delivered by partner organisations.
He launched a £150m Investment Fund for Scotland which is administered by companies such as Maven, the FSE Group and DSL Business Finance.
The bank oversaw the support provided to businesses amid the pandemic under coronavirus-related schemes such as the rebound loan programme.
