Nucleus Commercial Finance
A London lender combining invoice finance and asset-based lending from £100k to £50m, advancing around 80 per cent against receivables, with a growing private-equity channel.
What they do
Nucleus Commercial Finance lends against receivables and other assets through factoring, confidential discounting and multi-asset facilities, at advance rates of roughly 80 per cent, with per-invoice fees quoted between 0.1 and 2 per cent of the amount advanced. Credit decisions are made in the UK, and the asset-based team was expanded through 2024 and 2025 with senior relationship and regional hires, including a director recruited to build the private-equity channel. Origination runs through brokers and accountants as well as directly, with onboarding taking around a month and drawdown available within a day once agreed.
Where they fit in a lower-mid-market raise
The published range covers a whole £3–15m requirement, and the willingness to fund acquisitions and management buyouts as well as growth working capital makes this an asset-based lender that can sit at the centre of a transaction rather than beside it. The deliberate push into sponsor-led deals means a private-equity buyer will find a receptive audience, which is not true of every independent of this size.
Where they are not the fit
The £50m ceiling is a headline rather than a typical deal, and how much of the book sits above £5m is not published, so capacity at the top of a raise should be tested early. The separate unsecured business loan product caps well below the band and is not relevant here. Consumer receivables are outside the product by design.
Published terms
- Pricing
- Invoice fees quoted 0.1%-2% per invoice, charged on the amount advanced (not gross invoice value); advance rate typically ~80% of invoice value
- Speed to terms
- Full onboarding ~1 month; funding line accessible within a day once agreed; group markets finance in as little as 24 hours for smaller products
- Sponsored or sponsorless
- Both - SME corporates via brokers/accountants plus an explicit push into the private-equity/M&A space (regional sales director hired to lead private equity-space growth)
- Where they lend
- UK only; London HQ (120 Regent Street, W1B 5FE) plus North-of-England BDM coverage for brokers/introducers
- How they decide
- UK-based credit decisions retained post-Pulse; ABL team expanded 2024-25 with senior relationship or regional sales hires
- Personal guarantee
- Typically required on its revenue-based loans and cash advances; its invoice finance and asset-based lending pages do not say
As published by the lender and last reviewed August 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 Nucleus Commercial Finance’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.
- B2C-only receivables (product is B2B)
- Invoicing customers with poor payment track record
How they sit against the category
- Its published ceiling of £50m is among the 4 highest of the 40 asset-based lenders here.
- 11 of the 40 publish an indicative price at all; it is one of them.
Counted across the 40 asset-based & asset-finance lenders 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 Nucleus Commercial Finance write?
Published facilities reach £50m, 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.
How quickly does Nucleus Commercial Finance move?
Full onboarding ~1 month; funding line accessible within a day once agreed; group markets finance in as little as 24 hours for smaller products. Published timetables describe a clean case; anything unusual in the security or the structure adds to them.
Does Nucleus Commercial Finance lend to companies without a private-equity sponsor?
Yes. Nucleus Commercial Finance lends to owner-managed and sponsor-backed borrowers alike, so a company with no private-equity backer is not out of scope on that ground.
Where does Nucleus Commercial Finance lend?
UK only; London HQ (120 Regent Street, W1B 5FE) plus North-of-England BDM coverage for brokers/introducers.
Does Nucleus Commercial Finance require a personal guarantee?
On its revenue-based loans and cash advances, yes. Nucleus states they are offered with the backing of a personal guarantee; its invoice finance and asset-based lending pages publish no position.
On the record
2024: ABL team expansion — Niall Dunphy (Senior Relationship Manager, ex-Santander IF) and Odhran Dodd (Regional Sales Director, ex-HMT) hired (mortgagesoup.co.uk / businessleader.co.uk.
Sources: nucleuscommercialfinance.com · find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk · businessfinancing.co.uk · mortgagesoup.co.uk · businessleader.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.