UK business bank Allica is embarking on a $100 million fundraising round with an eye to snapping up distressed non-bank lenders impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic.
Allica Bank is focused on supporting small and medium sized businesses across the UK, from offices in Milton Keynes and London, alongside a team of regional Business Relationship Managers.
The bank, which received full UK banking authorisation in late 2019, claims to have had over £1bn of enquiries from businesses in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Of the lending it has provided to date, the vast majority has been to businesses outside the capital (95% of loans by value, and 97% by volume).
Richard Davies, recently recruited from Revolut as chief executive, Allica Bank, says: "It is clear that the supply of finance has been very badly damaged by Covid-19 outside of the government schemes. The time is now for Allica to scale up its operations to meet this business funding gap, bringing a blend of human relationships, deep lending expertise, and digital disruption. Together with potential acquisition opportunities of non bank lenders impacted by the pandemic, we intend to create the leading SME challenger bank for the decade ahead.”
The announcement comes as Allica successfully completes a follow-on investment of £26m led by existing majority shareholder, Warwick Capital Partners.