Allica Bank, the UK banking institution built for established SME businesses, recently shared its 2024 Annual Report, revealing a near doubling in profits of £29.9 million in 2024 (FY23 £16.1m).
The growth has been attributed primarily to 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 reportedly Allica’s second “full year” of profitability in “the four years since first opening for lending in 2020.”
According to a release, the pace of Allica’s growth underlines the digital bank’s “potential to disrupt the SME finance market.”
Its 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 steady progress in 2024 was spearheaded by the “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.”
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 the 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.”