Skipton Business Finance
The commercial finance arm of Skipton Building Society, funding invoice finance from £25k and asset-based facilities to £25m from a mutual's deposit-funded balance sheet.
What they do
Skipton Business Finance provides factoring, confidential invoice discounting and multi-asset lending from offices in Skipton, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and Bracknell. Advances reach 90 per cent on standard ledgers and 70 per cent on construction applications for payment, a sector many receivables lenders decline outright. Standard invoice finance runs from £25k to £5m and the asset-based line to £25m. Being owned by a building society, the funding is deposit-backed rather than wholesale, and underwriting is done in-house by relationship managers.
Where they fit in a lower-mid-market raise
Two things make this lender useful in a lower-mid-market transaction: construction receivables, which are otherwise hard to fund, and a demonstrated willingness to complete small sponsorless management buyouts by combining invoice finance with a government guarantee scheme facility. For a £3–15m raise, the asset-based line is the entry point and the invoice finance product is the working-capital sleeve underneath it.
Where they are not the fit
Standard invoice finance mostly sits below £3m, so the smaller product alone will not carry a lower-mid-market deal. A business-to-business ledger is required and pricing is not published. The minimum facility on the asset-based line is not stated, which is worth establishing before the lender is counted on for the senior piece.
Published terms
- Pricing
- Not published
- Speed to terms
- Not published
- Sponsored or sponsorless
- Both - predominantly sponsorless owner-managed; demonstrated small MBOs
- Where they lend
- Offices Skipton, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Bracknell
- How they decide
- In-house, relationship-manager-led; broker/introducer-originated; delegated underwriting at invoice finance tickets; backed by Skipton BS balance sheet. Authority is delegated below committee on at least part of the book
- Security
- Receivables; a borrowing base over receivables, inventory and plant
- Covenants
- Springing covenant, tested only when a trigger is hit
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.
The desks that lend
Skipton Business Finance lends through 2 separate books. Which one reads a deal decides the security, the covenant package and the band, so the question is rarely whether Skipton Business Finance lends, but which of these would own it.
Invoice finance (factoring / confidential discounting / selective / ledgerlite / skipton select)
- Facility
- £3m to £25m
- Security
- Receivables
- Covenants
- Springing covenant, tested only when a trigger is hit
- Funds
- Acquisition · Growth · MBO · Refinance
- Rules out
- Standard invoice finance mostly below £3m - sub-band working capital; B2B ledger required
Asset based lending (receivables + stock + property + P&M + cashflow)
- Facility
- £1m to £25m
- Security
- A borrowing base over receivables, inventory and plant
- Covenants
- Springing covenant, tested only when a trigger is hit
- Funds
- Acquisition · Growth · MBO · Refinance
- Rules out
- ABL line is the band-entry
Limits that apply across the firm
Stated limits, taken from Skipton Business Finance’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 £25m; 14 of the 40 asset-based lenders here go at least as high.
- Like 29 of the 40, it publishes no indicative price — a margin comes from a conversation, not a page.
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 Skipton Business Finance write?
Published facilities run £1m to £25m. A band is what a lender states it will do, not what it will do on a given credit.
What security does Skipton Business Finance take?
On the published terms, receivables or a borrowing base over receivables, inventory and plant. What a lender takes on a given facility is set in the documents, not by a published stance.
Does Skipton Business Finance lend to companies without a private-equity sponsor?
Yes. Skipton Business 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 Skipton Business Finance lend?
Skipton Business Finance lends offices Skipton, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Bracknell.
What covenants does Skipton Business Finance set?
Springing covenant, tested only when a trigger is hit. A covenant package is negotiated on the facility; the published style is where the negotiation starts.
On the record
November 2025: £450k funding to recruitment firm EA First (Birmingham) for acquisitive growth (Insider Media.
June 2025: £800k funding for MBO of Graham Nicol & Dow (Glasgow fruit & veg wholesaler) (theintermediary.co.uk.
2025: working-capital facility for a fragrance distributor (supplies Liberty, Fortnum & Mason) (Insider Media.
April 2026: supported MBO of Peak Electrical Supplies (Nicola & Jason Andrews to 100%) via invoice discounting + Growth Guarantee Scheme (theintermediary.co.uk.
Sources: skiptonbusinessfinance.co.uk · fundingagent.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.