UK challenger Allica Bank has secured a £26 million investment and launched a new £100 million funding round.
Allica gained a licence in late 2019 from the PRA
The bank kicks off the fresh funding to support “accelerated lending” to British businesses and prepare for future acquisitions.
Its £26 million injection comes from existing investor and majority shareholder Warwick Capital Partners.
Allica Bank received a banking licence from the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) in September 2019. It focuses on providing funds to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Formerly known as CivilisedBank, the lender runs on Profile Software’s FMS.next and RiskAvert platforms. Microsoft’s Azure cloud service hosts both systems.
Allica plans to roll-out further Profile solutions, including treasury management platform Acumennet and further FMS.next payment services.
CEO Richard Davies joined in July from fintech firm Revolut. Davies has held senior commercial roles at HSBC, TSB, and Barclays. He also spent time as CEO of OakNorth Bank.
Davies says SMEs will be “vital to the recovery of the UK economy”. He adds that the supply of finance has been “badly damaged by COVID-19”.
“The time is now for Allica to scale up its operations to meet this business funding gap, bringing a blend of human relationships, deep lending expertise, and digital disruption.”
He adds: “Together with potential acquisition opportunities of non bank lenders impacted by the pandemic, we intend to create the leading SME challenger bank for the decade ahead.”
Related: US neobank Chime set to more than double in value to $15bn
