Allica Bank | scaling Britain’s SME fintech challenger from London

Founded in 2019, Allica Bank is one of the UK’s leading fintech scale-ups, focused on serving established small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) - a segment it sees as underserved by both traditional banks and fintech challengers. 

In 2025, Allica was named by the Financial Times as Europe’s second fastest-growing company in their annual FT1000 list of the fastest-growing firms. Central to that growth has been London’s potent combination of talent, investors, regulators and infrastructure that cannot be replicated elsewhere.  

We spoke to Conrad Ford, Chief Product & Strategy Officer at Allica Bank, about why London remains such a powerful environment for scaling fintech businesses, and how the UK ecosystem continues to support Allica’s long-term ambitions. 

Why has London been such an important base for Allica’s growth? 

We’re building a regulated bank, but also a modern technology company. That means you need people who understand technical aspects of financial services such as risk and compliance, alongside modern product engineers and data scientists. London is one of very few places where those talent pools exist together at real scale. We’re based on the border between London’s famous Square Mile financial district and its Silicon Roundabout technology hub – so I say that we balance the ‘fin’ and the ‘tech’ of fintech!

There’s also a strong network effect. Many people in London have experience scaling fintechs or other digital businesses. That accumulated expertise becomes valuable as companies grow from the startup phase into larger, more complex organisations. This also means a thriving angel investor community of proven entrepreneurs, a happy legacy of so many successful scale-ups that were born here.

How important is proximity to investors and capital markets?

Building and scaling a bank requires significant capital over time. One of London’s great strengths is that founders and management teams can access sophisticated investors who understand financial services and long-duration growth businesses.

Crucially, the world’s leading private equity and sovereign wealth funds will typically have their European HQ in London. In fact, the co-managing partner of one of Allica’s major investors – a well-known Silicon Valley fund – lives here in London. 

London also benefits from having a world-leading ecosystem around financial services – meaning legal expertise, regulatory expertise, banking infrastructure and specialist advisers. That ecosystem reduces friction for scaling regulated companies.

What makes the UK such a strong place to build a fintech business?

The UK has a very strong overall proposition for fintech companies.

First, there’s the regulatory environment. The UK has developed a reputation globally for being rigorous but also innovation friendly. Institutions like the FCA have played an important role in helping UK fintech become a globally competitive sector.

Secondly, there’s the depth of professional services and financial expertise across the country. While London is clearly central to the ecosystem, Allica’s growth also depends on teams across the UK. The broader UK talent base is a major advantage.

There’s also global recognition that UK fintech has moved beyond early-stage disruption into building scaled, profitable financial institutions. Notably, the UK’s two major financial regulators – the FCA and PRA - recently launched a dedicated Scale-up Unit.

What are Allica’s ambitions from here?

In its UK market, Allica has now exceeded 6% penetration of its established SME segment and is targeting 10% by 2028. It was also recently named the UK’s most recommended business bank, based on Net Promoter Score (NPS). Butwe won’t be stopping there - we like to say that we’re just getting started! 

There is also excitement about opportunities from AI. A characteristic of Allica’s segment is that each customer is different, but traditional methods of customisation have proven prohibitively expensive for traditional banks. Allica sees AI as a crucial factor in solving this challenge, so London’s AI talent pool is seen as a real asset.

Finally, Allica is beginning to take its first international steps, and London is a strong base.  The UK’s banking regulator is highly respected abroad, which makes initial conversations with overseas regulators easier. Also, London’s uniquely global talent pool means that experience of other markets can often be found on your doorstep.

Conrad Ford, 
Chief Product & Strategy Officer, Allica Bank