In September, Allica Bank secured £26m ($33m) in funding from investors and launched a £100m funding round. The bank, which only received authorisation in late 2019, claims it has had more than £1bn of enquiries from businesses in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The surge in demand has been driven by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), particularly outside London, that have found it difficult to secure funding during the crisis, says Richard Davies, chief executive, Allica Bank. “SMEs' supply of finance has been very badly damaged by Covid-19 outside of the government schemes,” he says.
