BUSINESS CXO INSIGHT PROFILE

Tell me more about Allica Bank and how it started.

Allica Bank was founded on a simple observation that established businesses – those with between five and 250 employees – were being systematically underserved by the UK’ s major banks. Too large for standardised consumer style banking and too small for traditional corporate divisions. Despite collectively driving a third of UK GDP and employment, they have been largely ignored.

When Allica received its banking licence from the PRA in 2019, it was a significant milestone for us, but the real challenge was then building a bank from the ground up. This meant designing a powerful technology infrastructure and combining it with genuine human relationships and products tailored to the specific needs of established businesses. aren’ t getting elsewhere, and then deliver on it, the businesses you serve become your best advocates.

Incumbents are held back by legacy systems not designed with established SMEs in mind, leading to manual processes, poor insight and a customer experience that leaves businesses feeling sidelined.

At the centre of our proposition is the Business Rewards Account, alongside a suite of products established SMEs actually need, including our recently launched business overdraft. SME overdraft availability has collapsed by over 80 % since 2000, leaving a £ 15 billion gap. Businesses can now apply for our new overdraft, with limits between £ 25,000 and £ 2 million and decisions made in days. It’ s a good example of us identifying where the system has let SMEs down and fixing it.

We launched in 2020 with commercial mortgages, before expanding into savings and asset finance. By 2022 we had passed £ 1 billion in both lending and deposits and became profitable on a monthly basis in 2022, one of the fastest UK FinTechs ever to do so.

Since then, we’ ve continued to broaden our proposition. At the heart of our offer is the Business Rewards Account – a business current account built specifically for established SMEs. In 2025 we saw rapid growth in its uptake, with the number of account holders and balances more than doubling over the year.

Allica is Britain’ s fastest-ever growing FinTech – how has it ensured this impressive growth?

Allica’ s growth has been driven by a clear and deliberate focus on established SMEs. Rather than trying to be all things to all people, we built everything around the specific needs of businesses with five to 250 employees and that’ s proven to be a significant competitive advantage.

We have invested heavily in building our own tech infrastructure, allowing us to deliver an experience that is more powerful and more personal than the legacy banks can offer. Every customer has a dedicated relationship manager who understands their business, backed by tools that make it genuinely easy to bank. The results speak for themselves. Total outstanding lending to established SMEs is £ 4 billion. In addition to being the fastest growing FinTech ever, Allica was also named the UK’ s fastest growing company in 2024 by The Times.

Underpinning all of it is our proprietary technology; purpose-built to offer customers an experience that’ s rewarding, powerful and human when it matters. The result is that businesses recommend us and that recommendation is how we grow.

You’ ve just been named most recommended business bank – why do you think this is?

This recognition means everything to us because it comes directly from our customers. Not judged by industry experts but based on customer feedback from more than 4,000 real businesses about their experience with banking providers. To be the most recommended business bank has always been our north star, because it shows we’ re building something that genuinely works.

The reason businesses recommend us is because we’ re doing something different. We provide a relationship manager whose name you know, a current account that gives established SMEs real value and rewards and technology that makes life easier, not harder.

Most business owners feel, at best, ignored by their bank. We think that’ s unacceptable and proving there’ s a better way to do things is exactly what those 4,000 recommendations reflect.

We also recently joined the ranks of the FinTech unicorns, achieving a valuation of close to US $ 1.2 billion following our US $ 155 million Series D raise. This is not just a strong vote of confidence from investors in our model but allows us to further boost our lending, enhance our tech and continue to grow as we consider a potential expansion into Europe.

Allica Bank aims to achieve a 10 % share of the established SME market by 2028 – how do you plan to achieve this?

Achieving 10 % market share comes down to the simple idea that if you offer established SMEs something they genuinely need but

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