SME Capital
A non-bank lender writing bespoke cashflow term loans of £500k to £15m over three to seven years, secured by debenture with no director personal guarantees, from around 7 per cent a year.
What they do
SME Capital lends to owner-managed businesses through regional directors who give borrowers direct access to the people who decide, with a credit-backed indicative term sheet typically inside five days and funding in six to eight weeks. Loans are cashflow-based rather than asset-based, sector-agnostic, and secured by a debenture without personal guarantees from directors, which is unusual at this end of the market. The floor is around £250k of operating profit and three years of trading. Headline pricing starts at about seven per cent a year.
Where they fit in a lower-mid-market raise
For an owner-managed company funding an acquisition, a buyout or growth while keeping its equity intact, this is one of the most directly useful lenders in the lower-mid-market: fast, sponsorless by design, and willing to lend without taking personal guarantees. Its selective stance on management buy-ins makes it one of the closer mainstream lenders to a first-time acquirer, which is worth testing on any search-fund style transaction.
Where they are not the fit
Asset-only or pre-profit businesses do not fit a cashflow model. Three years of trading and roughly £250k of operating profit are hard tests. The published maximum is £15m while product materials centre on around £5m, so a larger structure should be confirmed before the lender is relied on for the whole of a raise.
Published terms
- Pricing
- From ~7% p.a. interest (700 bps headline); bespoke; arrangement/exit fees not published
- Speed to terms
- Credit-backed indicative term sheet ~5 days from application; drawdown ~2 weeks of final terms; ~6-8 weeks to funding overall
- EBITDA floor
- From about £250k
- Sponsored or sponsorless
- Sponsorless or owner-managed first; will also fund alongside/for private equity
- Where they lend
- UK-wide via regional directors
- How they decide
- Regional Directors give direct access to decision-makers (silos removed); credit-backed indicative term sheet typically within 5 days. Authority is delegated below committee on at least part of the book
- Security
- A debenture over the company
- Covenants
- Maintenance covenants, tested every period
- Personal guarantee
- Not typically required on the published terms: SME Capital states it typically does not take personal guarantees, taking a first-ranking debenture instead
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.
What rules a deal out
Stated limits, taken from SME Capital’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.
- 3+ years trading
- Operating profit ~£250k+
- Cashflow-led (not asset-only)
How they sit against the category
- Its published ceiling is £15m; 25 of the 46 private-credit funds here go at least as high.
- It opens lower than almost all of them, at £500k.
- 15 of the 46 publish an indicative price at all; it is one of them.
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 SME Capital write?
Published facilities run £500k to £15m. It looks for EBITDA from about £250k. A band is what a lender states it will do, not what it will do on a given credit.
How quickly does SME Capital move?
Credit-backed indicative term sheet ~5 days from application; drawdown ~2 weeks of final terms; ~6-8 weeks to funding overall. Published timetables describe a clean case; anything unusual in the security or the structure adds to them.
Does SME Capital lend to companies without a private-equity sponsor?
Yes. SME Capital 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 SME Capital lend?
SME Capital lends in UK-wide via regional directors.
What covenants does SME Capital set?
Maintenance covenants, tested every period. A covenant package is negotiated on the facility; the published style is where the negotiation starts.
Does SME Capital require a personal guarantee?
Not typically. SME Capital states that it typically does not take personal guarantees, and takes a first-ranking debenture over the business instead.
On the record
2024: Won Deal of the Year (sub-£10m), Insider South East Dealmakers Awards, for HRS Rail MBO.
April 2023: Backed acquisition of AMCO by PHS Ltd (renewables/electrical, Yorkshire; £35m+ combined revenue), 5-yr term facility.
2025: Welcomed James Shore (SME Capital / SME Ascend); team build-out.
Sources: smecapital.com
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.