Atom Bank
An app-based challenger lending secured business loans and commercial mortgages from £100k to £10m through brokers, priced off the property and the borrower's cash cover rather than an earnings multiple.
What they do
Atom Bank lends to UK businesses through a broker panel, secured against commercial property. Facilities run from £100k to £10m at up to 75 per cent loan to value below £5m and 70 per cent above it, with a minimum debt service cover of 125 per cent, and rates start around 5.75 per cent with published discounts on larger loans. Underwriting is technology-led with manual review on large cases, and loans above £5m route through a business development team. The book has passed £1bn and lends across the UK, including Scotland.
Where they fit in a lower-mid-market raise
This is the property-secured leg of a deal. Where a £3–15m requirement includes buying the freehold a business trades from, refinancing a mortgage on owner-occupied premises, or releasing equity from property to fund something else, Atom prices that piece keenly and moves quickly. Published pricing and published loan-to-value bands make it unusually easy to benchmark, which is useful even where the bank does not end up in the structure. Unsupported personal guarantees can be accommodated.
Where they are not the fit
It is not a cashflow lender. There is no asset-based lending, no unitranche and no appetite for a leveraged buyout underwritten on EBITDA, so an acquisition without real estate has nothing here to lend against. Access is through brokers only, and charities, trusts and defence are outside the credit box. Above £10m, or where the security is receivables and plant rather than property, the market's answer sits elsewhere.
Published terms
- Pricing
- Commercial fixed rates from ~5.75% (575 bps headline); large-loan discounts: £1m-£3m get 0.40%, £3m-£10m get 0.25% (2026 update); pricing is all-in rate not SONIA-spread
- Speed to terms
- Not published
- Sponsored or sponsorless
- Sponsorless (corporate or owner-managed or property investor); not a private equity-leverage lender
- Where they lend
- UK-wide including. Scotland (largest Scottish deal ~£6m in 2025)
- How they decide
- Broker-only (panel); loans >£5m via BDM team; tech-led underwriting with manual large-loan review
- Covenants
- Maintenance covenants, tested every period
- Personal guarantee
- Typically required
As published by the lender and last reviewed June 2026. Terms quoted on a deal are set by the credit, not by a published band.
What rules a deal out
Stated limits, taken from Atom Bank’s own published criteria. A limit is where a lender starts from, not where it always ends: several of these move on a strong enough credit.
- Disqualified directors
- Charities
- DSCR <125% on EBITDA(R)
- No appetite in adult, charities, crypto, defence or gambling
How they sit against the category
- Its published ceiling is £10m; 28 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.
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 Atom Bank write?
Published facilities reach £10m, 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 Atom Bank require a personal guarantee?
On Atom 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 Atom Bank lend to companies without a private-equity sponsor?
Yes. Atom Bank lends to owner-managed and corporate borrowers, and publishes no private-equity sponsor proposition.
Where does Atom Bank lend?
UK-wide including. Scotland (largest Scottish deal ~£6m in 2025).
What covenants does Atom Bank set?
Maintenance covenants, tested every period. A covenant package is negotiated on the facility; the published style is where the negotiation starts.
What does Atom Bank lend?
The published product set is commercial mortgage / secured business loan.
On the record
February 2026: cut minimum loan size; 2026-06: boosted proc fees + expanded large-loan discounts.
January 2026: >£1bn commercial mortgages on balance sheet, +24% YoY.
2025: largest-ever Scottish commercial mortgage ~£6m; NACFB highly-commended.
Sources: atombank.co.uk · business-money.com · theintermediary.co.uk
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.