Allica – the only bank built for established SME businesses and Britain’s fastest-growing fintech ever – today publishes its latest Annual Report, revealing a near doubling in profits of £29.9 million in 2024 (FY23 £16.1m). The growth was driven by significant investment in its digital infrastructure, leading to a surge in revenue as the digitally-native bank grew its loan book to over £3 billion and customer deposits surpassed £4 billion.

2024 was Allica’s second full year of profitability in the four years since first opening for lending in 2020. It saw the fintech topping multiple UK and EU ‘fastest growth’ awards, including the UK’s fastest growing private company (Times Hundred), fastest growing tech company (Deloitte Fast 50), and Europe’s fastest growing start-up (Sifted).

The pace of Allica’s growth underlines the digital bank’s potential to disrupt the SME finance market. Its innovative proprietary technology has been built specifically to serve established SMEs – those businesses typically with 5-250 staff – who make up a third of the UK’s economy. Allica is targeting 10% market penetration in the established SME banking market in the next three years.

Allica’s success in 2024 was spearheaded by the impressive growth of its flagship business current account – the ‘Business Rewards Account’. The digital bank account is designed to make banking more powerful and rewarding for established SMEs, alongside giving them the support of a dedicated relationship manager.

In 2024, Allica also launched its dedicated accountancy partnerships team, specifically focused on growing its relationships with accountancy firms across the UK and helping accountants add value to their clients’ banking. Having seen huge demand from the sector, it announced this March it would be doubling the size of its accountancy partnerships team.

Allica’s focus on developing its own in-house technology team and proprietary software has delivered a significant competitive advantage for the fintech, with over 200 in-house product and engineering staff, delivering over 3,500 technology releases in 2024, including new integrations with Wise, Sage and Xero.

2024 saw the bank accelerate its efforts to disrupt the SME banking market with a series of achievements:

• Maintained excellent customer satisfaction ratings – 4.6 Trustpilot score, +67 Net Promoter Score (NPS), as well as 4.8 Apple App and 4.7 Google Play store rating

• Grew Allica’s ‘Business Rewards Account’ to over 6,000 established SME customers by the end of 2024

• Expanded its business lending proposition with successful acquisition of bridging finance specialist Tuscan Capital

Richard Davies, CEO of Allica Bank, said:

“2024 has been our best year yet, with significant growth in revenue, lending and deposits demonstrating that we are offering a genuine alternative for established SMEs from the high-street banks and delivering on our promise to give them the banking they deserve. We are pleased to have almost doubled our pre-tax profit to £29.9 million, too, as we continue to grow sustainably.

“Allica have invested heavily in our proprietary technology capabilities to ensure we have the foundations in place to continue to scale at pace, in terms of the amount of established SMEs we're supporting and the ways we're supporting them.

Alongside giving established businesses a powerful bank account that truly rewards them and the support to help them thrive, I’m proud that Allica also advocated for established SMEs more broadly too. We’ve helped drive tangible change to Basel 3.1 to support more SME lending and have pushed to improve the business savings market with our Great British Savings Squeeze campaign. We will continue to do so in 2025, including advocating for an expansion in the Growth Guarantee Scheme for growth SME finance, and an increase to the FSCS limit to help businesses early better returns on their hard earned cash.

“The pace of Allica's growth is testament to the frustration that our customers feel with the status quo, and that Allica is offering something truly exciting and innovative. We are determined to continue championing the needs of SMEs across the country, and hopefully change business banking for good.”‍

Minister for Small Business Gareth Thomas said:

"The UK has a thriving tech sector worth over $1 trillion, so I'm delighted that Allica has been recognised as Europe's fastest growing start-up, supporting our vital SMEs, the driving force of our economy.

"With financial services and tech identified as key growth sectors in our upcoming Industrial Strategy, we are helping to deliver the long-term growth that supports skilled jobs and raises living standards across the UK, backing our Plan for Change."

Suzy Cremer, owner of The Devil’s Stone Inn pub in Devon and an Allica Bank customer said:

“I love Allica's whole ethos about supporting established businesses. They just get what being a business owner is all about. When I applied for a loan with them their relationship manager came down to my premises to meet me. It made things so much easier and they seem genuinely invested in our success.”

Liam Gurr, Managing Director of Banbury Heating Supplies, who have a business bank account with Allica, said:

"Allica offer something completely different to other banks and have been a game-changer for my business. I've earned thousands of pounds from cashback on my card payments, and the app is so easy to use. They save me so much time as well as money.”

Phil Gray, Managing Director at Watts Commercial Finance, said:

"It's been a really challenging few years for business owners. Economic and political uncertainty has stifled investment and many banks have retreated from giving businesses the finance they need to grow at the time it's needed most. Allica have shown they do things differently, supporting businesses and brokers with a human-centric approach, supplemented with really powerful technology. They’ve been a real breath of fresh air for the industry."