FinTech SME challenger bank Allica Bank has raised 拢100 million in Series C funding.
Allica provides a full-service banking relationship to established SMEs and entrepreneurs, offering them lending, savings and payments.
It says businesses with 10 to 250 employees represent around a third of the UK economy yet are neglected by both mainstream high street banks and other FinTechs who instead focus on consumers and micro-businesses.
The round was led by global growth technology investor TCV with participation from existing investors Warwick Capital Partners and Atalaya Capital Management.
With this investment, Allica joins TCV鈥檚 impressive roster of portfolio companies, including household names like Airbnb, Netflix, and Spotify, as well as category-defining fintechs such as Brex, Mambu, Mollie, Nubank, Qonto, Razorpay, Revolut, Toast, Trade Republic and Zepz.
It will be used to scale Allica rapidly and accelerate its disruptive impact in the UK SME market after Allica became profitable in June this year, while also reaching the 拢1 billion lending milestone and completing the migration of around 2,000 SME customers acquired from AIB GB.
鈥淔rom the moment we sat down with TCV it was clear we shared the same vision to transform SME banking in the UK, by taking on the mainstream 鈥榟igh street鈥� banking market,鈥� said Richard Davies, chief executive of Allica Bank and former executive at HSBC and Revolut.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a massive vote of confidence in the team we鈥檝e built at Allica to attract backing from such a world-class technology investor under the toughest of market conditions, and this 拢100 million funding round will enable us to support far more of Britain鈥檚 established and growth companies, who have been underserved for too long.鈥�
Michael Kalfayan, partner at TCV, said: 鈥淩ichard and team have built a truly impressive platform that is looking to solve a great need for UK established SMEs, a highly complex segment to serve.聽
鈥淭CV is laser-focused on partnering with market-leading companies seeking to leverage technology to transform industries.聽
鈥淎llica is a prime example of this and we鈥檙e incredibly excited to collaborate with this strong team as they work to be the country鈥檚 leading digitally-native SME bank.鈥�