B&C sat down with Allica’s chief commercial officer, Nick Baker (pictured above), to talk about the firm’s growth trajectory.

Commenting on Allica’s 10% market share ambitions, Nick said: “We have always had a very clear goal to target 10% market penetration. That is, that 10% of established SMEs in the UK have a relationship with Allica.

“That would mean that we have then firmly established ourselves in that market and will be of a size where we can't be ignored.”

Nick estimates Allica currently holds 2–3% of the market, and aims to close the gap towards its target over the next three years.

According to the recent report released by Allica, ‘Rebooting SME Finance to Unlock Growth’, there has been a build up of discouraged SMEs, with a marked drop in SMEs seeking funding over the past 35 years.

In Nick’s eyes, taking more market share of an underserved SME community can only mean a healthier sector.

The paper estimated there was a gap of around £65bn in the stock of SME credit versus historic trend. This gap was most pronounced in the construction sector and also across overdrafts generally, where a collapse in overdraft provision has seen it fall from 31% of SME bank lending in 1998 to just 5% today.

“That's really down to a lack of productive credit in the market,” said Nick, adding, “right now, day to day for SMEs, it is tough because margins are getting squeezed”.

The report found that bank lending in the UK had become increasingly “biased” towards residential mortgages over the past 30 years, with bank lending to companies “well below” the historic trend over the past 15 years in particular.

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Nick explained that brokers finding the right funding at the right price with the right banking relationship couldn’t be “more important” right now.

For Nick, the challenges SMEs face in securing funding are closely linked to the rapid rise of Allica —  now hard to miss thanks to its bold orange adverts lighting up the London underground.

“Our growth must, at least in part, reflect broker and customer frustration with the status quo,” he said.

“Because we've come in and taken a significant market share, that doesn't happen in a market that's really well serviced by big brands. People have come to an organisation that’s operating in a different way,” he continued.

At the end of last year, Allica broke into the bridging market with the acquisition of Tuscan Capital.

While Nick believes that Allica’s acquisition of Tuscan had only a marginal impact on the bank’s 2024 results, he expects bridging to be a “significant contributor” to its overall balance sheet in 2025.

“Bridging is a great example of where we're looking to essentially increase the number of lending products we can offer to our established SME customer base,” explained Nick.

Allica’s plans for the bridging SME space are gearing up, with the business planning to double its bridging team from three BDMs and four client services personnel at acquisition to seven each by December 2025.

This year, the bank also aims to add two more BDMs to its commercial mortgages team and boost its field relationship manager team from 22 to 60.

As the lender continues to grow, it is concentrating on ticking off its lengthy to-do list and keeping its sights firmly fixed on grabbing that 10% market share.