Allica posts £43.7m profit as SME customer base doubles

Allica Bank has reported its strongest-ever financial performance, marking a third consecutive year of profitability as the number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) choosing the lender more than doubled in 2025.

The UK’s only full-service digital bank focused on established SMEs said it is now on track to capture 10% of the market by 2028, following a year of rapid growth, major technology investment and accelerating adoption of artificial intelligence.

The fintech posted a 34% increase in underlying pre-tax profit to £43.7 million, up from £32.5 million the previous year, even as it invested £30 million into new products and expansion.

Gross revenue rose 27% to £371.3 million, while gross profit after risk climbed 32% to £145.3 million. Lending volumes also expanded significantly, increasing 23% to £3.7 billion, alongside a 29% rise in customer deposits to £5.7 billion.

Customer growth was particularly strong, with active Business Reward Account users rising by 133% to more than 14,000.

Chief Executive Richard Davies said the headline figures only tell part of the story, pointing to the bank’s deep investment in proprietary technology and AI as a defining factor in its future growth.

“We’ve been building Allica from the ground up on powerful, proprietary technology,” he said. “We’re entering this new era of agentic AI with a structural advantage that legacy banks simply cannot close.”

The bank is already deploying AI agents across its systems to enhance lending decisions, improve efficiency and provide relationship managers with deeper customer insights. It is also developing what it describes as a “global first” approach to complex SME lending using AI built on its own data.

Allica’s expansion reflects growing demand from established SMEs, a segment it says remains underserved despite representing roughly a third of the UK economy.

The bank advanced more than £1.3 billion in new lending during the year, with strong growth across all products, including:

• Commercial mortgages up 35% to £2.4 billion
• Asset finance up 19% to £507 million
• Growth finance up 127% to £171 million
• Bridging finance up 85% to £121 million

It also launched a new “Bridge-to-Term” product aimed at strengthening its commercial property lending offering.

Customer satisfaction remained high, with a Net Promoter Score of +76 among primary banking customers. Meanwhile, brand awareness doubled to 16% over the past year, according to research by Brandspeak.

During 2025, Allica expanded its national footprint by nearly tripling its relationship manager network to 60 people, while also entering the embedded finance market through the acquisition of Kriya, an SME credit and payments fintech.

The year’s performance supported a successful $155 million Series D funding round completed in early 2026, which the bank says will fund further UK growth, AI development and the early stages of international expansion.

Looking ahead, Allica plans to continue scaling its Business Reward Account and will launch a new national advertising campaign in April 2026 as it seeks to accelerate customer acquisition.