A Cumbrian business has secured funding to scale its interactive darts platform to pubs across the UK.
Big Fish Darts, based in Barrow and founded by Greg Taylor last year, received the backing through the British Business Bank’s Start Up Loans programme, which is delivered by GC Business Finance.
The platform was developed to help pubs run grassroots darts leagues.
Greg said he noticed that most existing darts competitions focused on professional players and often charged venues significant fees to participate.
He created Big Fish Darts as a more accessible alternative, making it free for pubs to join and charging players a small participation fee.
Greg said: “I created Big Fish Darts to help bring people together in a fun way and support UK pubs. It’s been a challenging couple of years for the hospitality sector, so I’m proud that Big Fish Darts is helping to bring atmosphere, energy and life back into venues.
“The funding from the Start Up Loans programme allowed me to develop the app quickly and bring it to market with confidence.
“The process of working with GCBF was smooth from start to finish, and I genuinely felt supported throughout the journey. They made accessing funding easy to understand, and felt like an arm around my shoulder during the process.”
Alex Mearns, head of start-up lending at GC Business Finance, said: “It’s incredible to see the pace at which Big Fish Darts has grown.
“From the outset, we recognised Greg’s vision, and Julia and the rest of our team worked closely with him to ensure the funding aligned with his mission.
“Businesses like Big Fish Darts are exactly the kind of innovative, community-focused ventures we’re passionate about supporting.
“Greg’s journey reflects the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit within the wider start-up ecosystem in the UK, and we’re proud to play a part in helping businesses like this grow and succeed.”
The funding sped up the app’s development by allowing Greg to hire a team of developers and invest in marketing.
It also allowed the business to introduce new features and improve the app’s functionality.
Since launching in January, more than 250 pubs across the UK have signed up to the platform.
An eight-week league generated between £1,000 and £1,800 in additional revenue per participating pub on average.
The business has also begun expanding internationally, with its app being used in South Africa, Mexico and Belgium.
Greg has started to develop two more platforms, including Big Fish Darts Academy and Big Fish School of Darts.
Big Fish Darts Academy contains an artificial intelligence system, trained by Greg, to analyse a player’s throw and match their style to a professional darts player.
Big Fish School of Darts is aimed at schools and contains interactive games and hardware that meets the latest guidelines for Sport England and Ofsted for inclusion in sport.
He said he was also exploring opportunities to bring his software into the charity sector, which would enable charities hosting fundraising darts tournaments to use the platform to organise events.
