Allica Bank
A PRA-authorised UK challenger bank built for established SMEs, lending against commercial property, plant and equipment, and, at the top of its range, cash-flow-light growth facilities secured on a mix of assets.
What they do
Allica is a full-service, deposit-taking bank focused on established UK SMEs (typically two-plus years of accounts, B2B, trading in England, Scotland or Wales). Its lending sits in three buckets: commercial mortgages (owner-occupied and investment, plus a specialist healthcare line), asset finance for plant, vehicles and equipment, and a growth-finance line for larger, more bespoke requirements including acquisitions, MBOs and refinancing. Lending is relationship-managed with a named relationship manager rather than purely automated. The bank reached £3bn of total business lending and second-year profitability in FY2024.
Where they fit in a lower-mid-market raise
Allica fits a 3–15m raise where the debt is anchored in tangible security: a trading premises, an investment property, or a pool of hard assets. Commercial mortgages run to £10m (owner-occupied) and £15m (investment and healthcare), and the growth-finance line explicitly reaches £15m on a secured, term-or-revolving basis for businesses with £5m-plus turnover. For an asset-rich SME that wants an established, regulated bank lender rather than a fund — particularly for property-backed acquisitions, MBOs and refinancings — Allica fits the mid-to-upper band of Solon's range well.
Where they are not the fit
Allica is a secured, asset-and-property-led lender, not a cash-flow underwriter for asset-light businesses; its growth-finance line is secured "against a mix of assets," so a leveraged buyout of a services or software company with little tangible collateral cuts against its grain. It requires two years of full accounts and a profitable, established trading record, so early-stage, pre-profit or special-situations borrowers are out of scope. It does not lend in Northern Ireland, and it is not the venue for unsecured cash-flow unitranche or mezzanine — for those, a private-credit fund is the better fit.
Published terms
- Pricing
- Commercial mortgage variable ~2-5% margin over Bank of England base, or 5yr fixed ~6-9%; arrangement fee 1.5% (owner-occupier) or 2.0% (investment); asset finance £295 doc fee. Term-loan margins not published
- Speed to terms
- Not published
- Sponsored or sponsorless
- Sponsorless or corporate (owner-managed SME focus); not a private-equity sponsor leverage lender
- Where they lend
- England, Scotland, Wales (not Northern Ireland)
- How they decide
- Relationship-manager-led with proprietary tech/AI decisioning; delegated authority by ticket, committee for larger. Not publicly detailed
- Covenants
- Maintenance covenants, tested every period
- Personal guarantee
- Typically required
- Search funds and ETA
- No published route for search-fund or first-time acquirer borrowers
As published by the lender and last reviewed July 2026. Terms quoted on a deal are set by the credit, not by a published band.
The desks that lend
Allica Bank lends through 3 separate books. Which one reads a deal decides the security, the covenant package and the band, so the question is rarely whether Allica Bank lends, but which of these would own it.
Growth finance (secured/unsecured term)
- Facility
- £1m to £15m
- Security
- Debenture + fixed/floating charge; asset-secured term
- Covenants
- Maintenance covenants, tested every period
- Funds
- Acquisition · Growth · Refinance
- Rules out
- Requires ~2 years full accounts; No pure startups/a new holding company searchers; Not a cashflow/EBITDA-multiple lender; Eligibility: UK limited company, ~2yrs accounts, B2B, turnover £5m+ (growth finance)
Commercial mortgage (owner-occupied / investment)
- Facility
- £150k to £10m
- Security
- First charge over property; 80% loan to value owner-occupier or 75% investment
- Covenants
- Maintenance covenants, tested every period
- Funds
- Acquisition · Growth · Refinance
- Rules out
- Property-secured only; England/Scotland/Wales only (not Northern Ireland)
Asset finance (HP / lease)
- Facility
- £25k to £2.5m
- Security
- Charge over financed asset
- Funds
- Growth · Refinance
- Rules out
- Max term 7 years
Limits that apply across the firm
Stated limits, taken from Allica Bank’s own published criteria, beyond the ones each desk carries above. A limit is where a lender starts from, not where it always ends: several of these move on a strong enough credit.
- No appetite in adult, crypto, gambling or weapons
How they sit against the category
- Its published ceiling is £15m; 25 of the 42 challenger and specialist banks here go at least as high.
- 18 of the 42 publish an indicative price at all; it is one of them.
- It lends through 3 distinct desks, where most firms here run one or two.
Counted across the 42 challenger & specialist banks in this directory, on what each one publishes. What a lender discloses and what it will do are different things.
Questions this page answers
How large a facility does Allica Bank write?
Published facilities reach £15m, and the bottom of the published range is small-ticket business rather than a corporate facility. A band is what a lender states it will do, not what it will do on a given credit.
Does Allica Bank require a personal guarantee?
On Allica Bank's published terms, a personal guarantee is typically required. What a lender asks for on a given credit is settled in the documents, not by a published stance.
Does Allica Bank lend to search funds or ETA buyers?
Not on the published evidence. Allica Bank publishes no route for search-fund or first-time acquirer borrowers. A searcher's route to a lender usually runs through the quality of the target and the equity behind it.
Does Allica Bank lend to companies without a private-equity sponsor?
Yes. Allica Bank lends to owner-managed and corporate borrowers, and publishes no private-equity sponsor proposition.
Where does Allica Bank lend?
Allica Bank lends in England, Scotland, Wales (not Northern Ireland).
What covenants does Allica Bank set?
Maintenance covenants, tested every period. A covenant package is negotiated on the facility; the published style is where the negotiation starts.
On the record
Allica Bank Limited is authorised by the PRA and regulated by the FCA and PRA under firm reference number 821851.
Allica Bank Limited is an active company, registered number 07706156, SIC 64191 (Banks), registered office 4th/5th Floor, 15 Worship Street, London EC2A 2DT.
Owner-occupied commercial mortgages run from £150,000 to £10m (up to 80% LTV); investment mortgages from £150,000 to £15m (up to 75% LTV); requires two full years of accounts.
Asset finance ranges from £25,000 to £2.5m across hard, medium and soft assets, with up to 100% advance and a maximum 7-year term.
Growth finance ranges from £1m to £15m as secured term loans or revolving credit facilities over 3–6 years, for established UK companies with turnover of at least £5m, supporting expansion, MBOs, refinancing and acquisitions.
In FY2024 Allica reached £3bn of total business lending (up 54%) and pre-tax profit of £29.9m (up 86%), its second full year of profitability.
Allica secured a £30m Tier 2 capital facility from British Business Investments to support its SME lending.
Allica lends to limited companies, LLPs, partnerships and sole traders trading in England, Scotland or Wales.
Sources: allica.bank
This profile is a curated reference note drawn from public sources, not financial advice or a recommendation. Appetite and terms change; a lender's fit for a given credit is established by approaching it, not inferred from a page.