Salica Investments
A UK growth debt manager, formerly Hambro Perks, lending around £2m to £15m of non-dilutive senior secured debt to intellectual-property-rich technology, hardware and advanced manufacturing scale-ups.
What they do
Salica's second growth debt fund is anchored by £30m from the British Business Bank and £30m from the West Yorkshire Pension Fund, with Barclays as a cornerstone investor, and lends UK-wide with deliberate regional spread. Facilities are senior secured and non-dilutive, sized on recurring revenue, runway and the value of the intellectual property rather than on earnings, for companies that are typically loss-making but approaching profitability. Sectors covered include software, medical devices, advanced manufacturing, energy technology and hardware. Warrants are common.
Where they fit in a lower-mid-market raise
Hardware and intellectual-property-rich businesses are harder to fund than software, because there is less recurring revenue to lend against and more capital to absorb. This is one of few UK funds that will underwrite that profile, and it lends across the regions rather than only in the South East. Facilities from £2m to £15m cover a full lower-mid-market requirement.
Where they are not the fit
Profitable, cash-generative borrowers seeking leveraged debt are not the target: the model is built for loss-making scale-ups. Businesses outside technology, hardware and advanced manufacturing are outside the mandate. The published ticket range is inferred from completed deals rather than stated, so it should be confirmed.
Published terms
- Pricing
- Not published
- Speed to terms
- Not published
- Sponsored or sponsorless
- Both - backs VC-funded tech scale-ups directly (not private equity-buyout sponsor-led)
- Where they lend
- Fund II explicitly UK-wide with regional emphasis across UK nations/regions; Fund I franchise also lent across UK + Europe
- How they decide
- Fund investment committee; cadence and delegated authority not published
- Search funds and ETA
- No published route for search-fund or first-time acquirer borrowers
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 Salica Investments’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.
- EBITDA-positive or cash-flow-leverage borrowers are not the target; lends to loss-making IP-rich scale-ups on ARR/recurring-revenue basis
- Non-tech or non-IP-rich businesses outside core mandate
- No appetite in adult, crypto, gambling or weapons
How they sit against the category
- Its published ceiling is £15m; 25 of the 46 private-credit funds here go at least as high.
- Like 31 of the 46, it publishes no indicative price — a margin comes from a conversation, not a page.
Counted across the 46 private-credit & direct-lending funds 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 Salica Investments write?
Published facilities run £2m to £15m. A band is what a lender states it will do, not what it will do on a given credit.
Does Salica Investments lend to search funds or ETA buyers?
Not on the published evidence. Salica Investments 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 Salica Investments lend to companies without a private-equity sponsor?
Yes. Salica Investments 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 Salica Investments lend?
Fund II explicitly UK-wide with regional emphasis across UK nations/regions; Fund I franchise also lent across UK + Europe.
What does Salica Investments lend?
The published product set is salica growth debt. Published sector focus is advanced manufacturing, esg energy tech, ip rich hardware, medical devices, software.
On the record
October 2025: First close of £150m Growth Debt Fund II — BBB £30m anchor, West Yorkshire Pension Fund £30m (British Business Bank release.
November 2025: Barclays announced as cornerstone investor in Fund II (Salica / The Intermediary / UKTN.
October 2025: Solidatus — £5m venture debt, data lineage (Tech.eu.
Sources: british-business-bank.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.