Private-credit & direct-lending funds
Private-credit (direct-lending) funds lend from institutional capital — pension and insurance money — rather than deposits. That funding base lets them hold more leverage, underwrite on cashflow rather than assets, and structure around an event a bank will not. The flexibility is priced accordingly, above bank terms on rate and covenants, and it pays for itself when the cheaper end of the market declines or cannot do the structure.
Maintained by Solon Corporate Finance · Last reviewed 27 September 2026
When a borrower should look here
Look to direct lending when the raise turns on the equity story rather than the balance sheet — funding growth, a buy-and-build, an acquisition, a refinancing or a recapitalisation that needs more leverage or more flexibility than a clearing or challenger bank will extend. It rewards preparation: a clean information memorandum, a built model and a complete data room let a fund reach a credit view in days. The trade is price and covenants above bank terms in exchange for that reach and certainty.
How they differ from one another
Forty-six funds, split by the segment they actually serve and by what they underwrite. Unitranche and senior direct lenders are the core: Beechbrook, Kartesia, Apera, Cordet, DunPort, Shard Credit, SME Capital and ThinCats will write the sub-£15m cheque on its own merits, several of them without a private-equity sponsor behind it, while Arcmont, Park Square, Permira Credit, CVC Credit, Ares, Barings and Bridgepoint Credit are larger pan-European platforms whose core tickets start higher and reach down only selectively. Growth and venture lenders including Kreos, Claret, Columbia Lake, Salica and Palatine Growth Credit underwrite recurring revenue and runway rather than earnings, so they lend where there is no EBITDA to multiply. Mezzanine and special-situations houses such as Blazehill, Duke, Harwood and Hilco price complexity, junior risk or a difficult trading period. Appetite also splits on sector, on sponsored versus sponsorless, and on how far each will stretch leverage.
The private-credit & direct-lending funds
Unitranche & senior direct29
Single-tranche cashflow debt from institutional capital, sized on EBITDA.
Apera Asset Management
A London-headquartered pan-European private debt manager providing senior secured unitranche to private-equity-backed mid-market companies.
Arcmont Asset Management
One of Europe's largest private-debt managers, a Nuveen affiliate, lending senior and subordinated debt to mid- and upper-mid-market companies — predominantly sponsor-backed and at facility sizes well above the lower-mid-market.
Ares Management
A NYSE-listed global alternative asset manager and one of the largest direct lenders in the European mid-market, operating well above the UK lower-mid-market ticket range.
Barings
A global private credit manager operating at institutional scale, targeting the European mid-market through sponsor-backed senior and unitranche lending well above the lower mid-market threshold.
Beach Point Capital
A US credit manager's European lending arm, writing senior direct loans of £2m to £5m to entrepreneur-owned businesses, with a stated bias to Northern Ireland, Scotland and the North of England.
Beechbrook Capital
An established UK and European private-debt manager whose UK SME Credit funds lend senior secured debt to non-sponsored lower-mid-market companies.
Bridgepoint Credit
Bridgepoint Credit is the credit arm of LSE-listed Bridgepoint Group, a European mid-market private-debt manager running direct lending, credit opportunities and syndicated debt across corporate credit.
Caple
Caple is a London- and Amsterdam-based SME credit platform that originates unsecured, fixed-rate growth loans of £500k–£5m for established UK businesses, funded through BNP Paribas Asset Management's SME Alternative Financing vehicle.
Connection Capital
A private-client investment house lending £3m to £10m of senior, unitranche or mezzanine debt to profitable owner-managed companies, funded by high-net-worth individuals rather than a fund.
Cordet Capital
An independent Northern European direct lender writing senior secured and unitranche facilities of roughly £4m to £25m, with genuine appetite for sponsorless borrowers and conservative leverage.
CVC Credit
The credit arm of CVC, a large European private-credit and CLO manager whose direct-lending strategy backs medium-to-large, predominantly sponsor-owned companies.
DunPort Capital Management
An Irish-headquartered direct lender with a ring-fenced UK vehicle, writing unitranche and junior facilities of roughly £3m to £15m to owner-managed and sponsor-backed borrowers.
Eurazeo (Private Debt)
Eurazeo is a Paris-listed European private-markets manager whose Private Debt arm is a multi-billion-euro direct lender to the European mid-market, with a UK fund-management presence in Mayfair.
Foresight Group
A FTSE 250-listed, regionally-rooted UK investment manager whose relevant debt activity is wholesale private credit to specialist non-bank lenders, alongside an equity-led regional growth and buyout business.
Hayfin Capital Management
Europe-focused alternative asset manager deploying senior-secured direct loans to upper mid-market and large-cap companies, predominantly PE-sponsor-backed.
Kartesia
A pan-European private debt manager, now majority-owned by New York Life Investments and Candriam, specialising in lower-mid-market corporate lending across the capital structure.
Muzinich & Co.
New York-founded, London-headquartered global credit manager with a dedicated pan-European private debt platform targeting lower-mid-market SMEs across eight to ten European countries.
Park Square Capital
A London-headquartered private credit manager that lends to larger, private-equity-backed companies across Europe and the US.
Pemberton Asset Management
A leading European private credit fund manager offering senior direct lending to PE-backed and entrepreneur-owned mid-market companies, anchored by Legal & General and operating from nine pan-European offices.
Permira Credit
The credit arm of the Permira group — a large pan-European private-credit manager whose direct-lending funds back sponsor-owned mid-market companies.
Pictet Asset Management
The European direct lending strategy of Swiss house Pictet, writing senior and unitranche facilities of roughly £13m to £35m, with a deliberate tilt to founder-owned borrowers.
Prefequity
A boutique London fund providing flexible debt-based growth capital of £5m to £25m to profitable regional businesses, with a first fund of £100m fully invested and a second raising.
Pricoa Private Capital (PGIM Private Capital)
The private debt platform of Prudential Financial's PGIM, providing senior and junior capital to established mid-market companies across the UK, Europe, and globally — operating at a scale that typically sits above the UK lower-mid-market.
Shard Credit Partners
A pure-play UK lower-mid-market direct lender writing £5m to £15m of unitranche, stretched senior, second lien and mezzanine debt, explicitly to sponsorless as well as sponsored borrowers.
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.
ThinCats
ThinCats is a UK alternative lender — now part of Shawbrook Group — providing secured term debt of £1–30m to mid-sized owner-managed, PE-backed, and healthcare businesses for acquisitions, MBOs, EOTs, and growth.
Tikehau Capital
Tikehau Capital is a Euronext-listed French alternative asset manager whose large pan-European private debt platform provides direct lending and bespoke corporate credit to SMEs and mid-caps, including in the UK.
Tosca Debt Capital
A Manchester-based structured debt fund backed by KKR, writing £10m to £30m of unitranche, senior and second lien for North of England mid-market businesses, sponsored and sponsorless alike.
Triple Point
London-based private markets manager with a dedicated private credit arm lending directly to UK SMEs and mid-market businesses across cashflow, asset and specialty finance structures.
Mezzanine & special situations4
Junior, structured and situation-driven capital behind or beside senior debt.
Blazehill Capital
A private credit fund writing hybrid asset-based and cashflow facilities from £10m to £150m, aimed at businesses turning over £100m and upwards.
Duke Capital
An AIM-listed permanent capital vehicle providing royalty financing, a thirty-year revenue-linked instrument with no bullet repayment, at an initial yield of around 13 per cent, from £5m to £30m.
Harwood Private Capital
A hybrid capital provider backing founder and management-owned businesses with unitranche or subordinated debt and preferred equity, from £3m to £20m, structured to leave control with management.
Hilco Capital
The UK lending arm of Hilco Global, providing asset-based facilities of £1m to £10m for buyouts, carve-outs and turnarounds, with facilities completing in around ten days.
Growth & venture debt13
Debt underwritten on recurring revenue and growth rather than earnings.
Atempo Growth
A pan-European venture and growth debt fund lending roughly £2m to £13m to venture-backed technology companies, anchored by Santander and the European Investment Fund.
BBVA Spark
The venture and growth lending arm of Spanish bank BBVA, lending £2.6m to £21m from the bank's own balance sheet to venture-backed technology companies, with a London team since 2024.
BOOST&Co (now Growth Lending)
UK specialist venture debt and growth capital lender to B2B technology and innovation SMEs, operating since 2011 and now part of the Growth Lending Group.
Bootstrap Europe
A venture debt fund lending roughly £850k to £13m to venture-backed technology and life sciences scale-ups across Europe, backed by British Business Investments and the European Investment Fund.
Claret Capital Partners
A London-headquartered growth debt fund lending from around £2m upwards to high-growth technology, life sciences and climate companies, with more than a billion dollars under management.
Columbia Lake Partners
A London growth debt fund writing term loans of £3m to £10m to venture-backed software companies, underwritten on recurring revenue and runway, with warrants and light covenants.
Kreos Capital
Europe's longest-established growth and venture debt provider, now part of BlackRock, lending from around £4m upwards to venture-backed technology and healthcare companies across twenty-two countries.
Palatine Growth Credit
The growth credit arm of Manchester private equity house Palatine, an £81m fund lending non-dilutive debt from £2m to venture-backed technology companies outside London.
Praetura Lending
The lending arm of the Manchester-based Praetura group, offering cashflow loans, asset-based lending and asset finance from £10k to £35m, mainly to owner-managed businesses in the regions.
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.
Stride Ventures
An Indian venture debt manager with a UK fund and a London team since 2024, lending growth credit to venture-backed technology companies across Britain and Europe.
Trinity Capital
A NASDAQ-listed permanent capital vehicle whose London arm writes venture debt and equipment finance from around £2.4m to £40m to UK growth companies.
Viola Credit
A technology-focused growth debt manager with a London European hub, lending roughly £4m to £42m to sponsor-backed software, financial technology and climate companies.
A curated reference map drawn from public sources: informational, not a ranking or a recommendation.