Allica Bank joins fintech unicorn club after £100m injection
Small business lender Allica Bank will join the illustrious club of British fintech unicorns after securing a fresh funding round.
The challenger bank is said to have netted $155m (£111m) in a Series D fundraise, which will take the firm’s valuation to $1.2bn and over the billion pound mark to declare unicorn status.
The round included investment from Dubai-based Ventura Capital, which holds a stake in blue-chip giants Uber and Spotify as well as UK fintech darling Zilch.
Richard Davies, the former Revolut and HSBC executive who heads up Allica, told Morning Wire last April he’d “expect” the firm to achieve the unicorn milestone if completed.
The remarks came after Allica delivered a record 86 per cent increase in pre-tax profit to £29.9m as lending activity topped £1bn.
Davies said at the time the small business lending market was a “barren wasteland” five to 10 years ago and Allica’s “strategic focus” on the area was key to its growth.
Digital lenders like Allica – which was named in 2025 – have been able to seize the vacuum left by big banks, which have turned away from the sector. Challengers now account for 60 per cent of the market, compared to 2019 where the four largest banks made up 90 per cent of lending.
Allica’s road to £1bn in working capital finance
The new funding round – first reported by Sky News – puts Allica among the UK’s most prominent challengers Monzo, Revolut and Starling.
The latest injection is slight uplift from the a £100m Series C secured in December 2022.
In October, Morning Wire revealed the digital bank hds snapped up London-based fintech Kriya, which specialises in embedded finance and business loans.
Kriya recorded £12.6m in revenue in 2024, according to the firm’s latest Companies House filings, a drop from £16.9m the year prior. The firm’s losses before tax hit £9m, but marked a fall from £11.5m in 2023.
The takeover marked Allica’s third acquisition after integrating Allied Irish Bank’s SME portfolio and purchasing bridging finance specialist Tuscan Capital in 2024.
The deal came as Allica targets £1bn in working capital finance – which refers to short-term, quick-access funding, such as loans and credit lines – over the next three years.