Cumbria-based digital darts business Big Fish Darts has secured funding through the British Business Bank’s Start Up Loans Programme, delivered by GC Business Finance, to scale its interactive darts platform to pubs across the UK.
Founded in 2025 by Greg Taylor, Big Fish Darts was developed to help pubs run grassroots darts leagues. Greg 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.
The Start Up Loan funding sped up the app’s development by allowing Taylor to hire a team of developers, along with investing heavily in marketing to bring the app to market. The additional headroom the funding provided for the business has also allowed him to introduce new features and continue improving the app’s functionality.
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Since launching in January, over 250 pubs across the UK have signed up to the platform. On average, an eight-week league has generated between £1,000 and £1,800 in additional revenue per participating pub.
The business has also already begun expanding internationally, with its app being used in countries including South Africa, Mexico and Belgium.
Looking ahead, Taylor has started to develop two more platforms including Big Fish Darts Academy and Big Fish School of Darts. Big Fish Darts Academy contains a bespoke AI system, trained by Taylor, to analyse a player’s throw and match their style to a professional darts player.
Big Fish School of Darts is aimed at schools, containing interactive games and hardware that meets the latest guidelines for Sport England and Ofsted for inclusion in sport and introduction to new sports.
Taylor is also exploring opportunities to bring his software into the charity sector, enabling charities hosting fundraising darts tournaments to use the Big Fish Darts platform to organise and manage their events more effectively while creating engaging experiences for participants.
Taylor 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 startup 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 at GCBF. 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.”
