British SME challenger bank Allica has boosted its working capital efforts and moved into the embedded finance market through the acquisition of fintech Kriya.
Since first opening its doors to lending in 2020, Allica has lent £3.5 billion to SMEs, helping it nearly double its profits last year as it was crowned the UK’s fastest growing private company by the Times and fastest growing tech company by Deloitte.
With the Kriya acquisition, it is now targeting an initial £1 billion of working capital finance over the next three years as part of a drive to penetrate 10% of the established SME finance market by the end of 2028, replacing the legacy high street banks.
Formerly known as MarketInvoice and MarketFinance, Kriya was launched in 2011 and has processed over £4 billion in invoice finance, SME loans and embedded finance. The fintech’s working capital solutions have helped thousands of businesses across more than 300,000 transactions.
Meanwhile, the company's embedded PayLater option - already integrated with major B2B retailers like Halfords - helps SME buyers manage cashflow.
Following the acquisition, Kriya will continue to operate under its own brand under CEO and co-founder Anil Stocker, with all employees joining Allica as part of the transaction.
Richard Davies, CEO, Allica Bank, says: "Kriya has built an impressive business over more than a decade, and Anil and his team share our belief that SME finance needs reinventing, and that together we can offer something the market desperately needs."