Allica’s SME lending balances more than doubled to £1.35bn in 2022

According to its latest results, SME lending balances grew from £566m in 2021 to £1.35bn in 2022 and its revenue growth was pegged at 534 per cent.

Deposits increased by over three quarters year-on-year to £1.5bn.

The lender added that its full-year pre-tax loss came to £1.6m, which is an improvement from £25m pre-tax loss in 2021. The company said that it had a £3m profit before tax in the second half of the year.

The firm said that it had brought out tech-driven features such as its proprietary automated decision-in-principle software for commercial mortgages. It said that it had processed around £250m in financing requests.

The bank added that during the year it had migrated AIB’s GB SME loan portfolio, which was bought in 2021, growing the firm’s customer base by over 1,400.

Successful capital raise

The lender also raised £155m in capital after a successful £100m Series C funding in December, with backing from investor TCV, Warwick Capital and Atalalya Capital Management.

Richard Davies, CEO of Allica Bank, said that 2022 was a “landmark year” for the company, pointing to its profitability, growth in deposits, lending and revenue, the launch of its business rewards account and completing its Series C funding round.

He continued: “We have an obsessive focus on building a distinctive and disruptive proposition for established SMEs — which represent over 30 per cent of the UK’s GDP.

“With the launch of our business rewards account – developed entirely in-house – we can now proudly say Allica is the UK’s only full-service bank dedicated to serving established SMEs.”

Davies said that the company had entered 2023 with an “excellent platform to continue to grow and expand its offer to SMEs” and that in the first quarter it had already seen profitability grow strongly and with prudent capital and liquidity positions would support “continued growth”.