Success stories from DBT are already starting to come in, and one company to feel the benefit was Shine Marketing, a Richmond-based IT company that attended the first forum in December.

A company spokesman said attending the meeting introduced them to new sources of finance and better ways of going about getting it.

He said: “Since the start of the credit crunch, Shine Marketing had tried and failed to obtain finance from traditional sources. After attending the meeting in December we immediately obtained the funding we required on favourable terms. We really do recommend to other businesses that they involve themselves with DBT and use them to make connections with a wider range of providers of finance and credit.”