Allica Bank secures £55m funding

Around £25m of this funding has come from existing investors Atalaya Capital Management and Warwick Capital Partners, who led the bank’s Series B funding round ‒ worth £110m ‒ back in November 2021.

The remaining £30m comes in the form of a Tier 2 capital facility from British Business Investments, a wholly-owned commercial subsidiary of the British Business Bank. 

The funds can be drawn on as required to fuel its growth, with Allica suggesting that it could support up to an additional £250m of lending to smaller businesses in the UK.

Allica Bank said that the new funding would provide a “strong basis” from which it could take on high street banks when lending to establishing, growing SMEs. 

The bank grew its SME lending last year to £560m ‒ an increase of more than 12 times the size of its loan book at the end of 2020 ‒ and suggests it is forecast to complete £3bn of lending in the next three years. Allica has set the target of over £1bn in committed loans this year.

It also claims that it is on track to reach profitability this year.

Richard Davies, chief executive at Allica Bank, said that the new funding would mean it could help more SMEs at a time when these businesses were looking for “tailored support” from their bank.

He continued: “Allica is fast becoming the SME challenger bank of choice through combining our proprietary technology with experienced local relationship managers to provide great customer experience. 

“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.”