Allica Bank bags £55m funding led by British Business Bank subsidiary
Fintech business lender Allica has bagged a fresh £55m round of funding today to “fuel its continued growth” as it eyes up profitability this year.
London-based Allica, which posted a surge in revenues in May after lending hit £560m last year, has secured the new cash from British Business Investments – a subsidiary of state-owned British Business Bank – and existing investors Warwick Capital Partners and Atalaya Capital Management.
British Business Investments will provide a £30m capital facility to the fintech challenger, which bosses said would provide “additional fuel” for growth alongside £25m of equity funding from Warwick and Atalya.
Unlike some of its challenger bank peers, Allica has prioritised a rapid shift to profitability and bosses said in May they are expecting to hit the mark this year after launching in just 2020.
Richard Davies, CEO, Allica Bank, said today that the new funding would allow the firm to guzzle up a bigger share of the SME lending market on the way to profit.
“The new facility from British Business Investments alongside further equity from our existing lead investors will enable Allica Bank to support and scale even more of Britain’s established SMEs and growth companies at a time when SMEs are looking for more tailored support from their bank,” he said in a statement.
“Looking ahead, we are hugely excited about our plans to develop Allica’s customer proposition as we continue our mission to reimagine relationship banking for SMEs.”
The latest funding builds on a £110m Series B round for the bank in November 2021 and boosts total funding by Allica to £285m.
Allica has benefited from a surge in SME lending as small firms looked to recover from the pandemic, with lending last year growing to more than 12 times higher than 2020.