Allica Bank

The bank is led by CEO Richard Davies, who previously served as Chief Operating Officer at TSB Bank and held senior roles at HSBC. Chairman Mike Cherry is the former National Chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, bringing a policy and advocacy background directly tied to the bank's target customer base. The executive team blends traditional commercial banking experience with challenger-bank operating expertise.

Allica uses a hybrid model combining direct marketing with a network of regional relationship managers who cover specific local markets. It also partners with commercial finance brokers for asset finance and commercial mortgage introductions. The bank does not rely on an app-only acquisition funnel; instead, it aims to win customers through higher deposit rates and a promise of faster, human-underwritten credit decisions for established businesses that struggle with automated credit scoring at high-street banks.

Allica operates exclusively as a direct lender, not as an investor in external private credit or private equity funds. All deployment is on-balance-sheet through its UK banking entity. The bank originates commercial mortgages, asset finance facilities, and business term loans directly to SMEs and property investors, funded by its deposit base and supplementary institutional facilities like the £100 million Atalaya mezzanine line closed in November 2024.

Allica raised a £100 million Series C equity round in late 2023 from investors including Atalaya Capital Management, Warwick Capital, and Chrysalis Investments, valuing the bank at over £800 million. On the liability side, the bank funds its lending primarily through SME and retail deposits — it surpassed £3 billion in deposits in 2024 — supplemented by institutional mezzanine facilities. Allica's full UK banking licence allows it to accept deposits insured by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme up to £85,000.

Allica focuses on established SMEs with between 5 and 250 employees, deliberately avoiding very early-stage startups and sole traders served by fintech challengers. Typical customers include manufacturers, professional-services firms, property investors, and regional businesses that need commercial mortgages or asset finance but lack a dedicated relationship manager at a large incumbent. The bank states it targets businesses that are too complex for purely digital underwriting but too small for the coverage models of Barclays or Lloyds.

Unlike Monzo, Starling, or Revolut — which built consumer and micro-business franchises — Allica targets mid-sized established SMEs and operates a relationship-manager-led credit model. It also holds a full UK banking licence with a material deposit base rather than operating as an e-money institution or relying predominantly on wholesale funding. This regulatory and business-model choice places Allica closer to a traditional commercial bank in structure, despite its modern technology stack and post-2019 vintage.

Allica Bank is a private limited company. Its most recent disclosed funding was a Series C equity round of £100 million in late 2023, led by existing institutional backers. The bank has not announced plans for a public listing, and its management has focused publicly on scaling the lending book to £5 billion rather than on a near-term exit.