Iwoca Secures £250m Debt Facility Amid Reports of £1bn-Plus Sale
Iwoca Secures £250m Debt Facility Amid Reports of £1bn-Plus Sale #
British SME fintech lender iwoca has closed a £250 million debt facility with Waterfall Asset Management and a leading UK bank, the company announced. The deal comes as reports emerge that iwoca is exploring a sale at a valuation above £1 billion.
The credit line, structured with private credit firm WAM Capital alongside an unnamed high-street lender, is built to scale with demand rather than fixed at a set size. It extends iwoca’s existing institutional debt base and follows several similar funding rounds completed over the past two years.
According to Sky News, iwoca has retained technology-focused investment bank Qatalyst Partners to run a formal sale process, with both strategic acquirers and financial investors expected to be approached. Sources cited in that report pointed to a valuation above £1 billion.
iwoca’s recent growth figures underpin the new fundraising. In 2025, the company issued 58,000 loans worth more than £1.3 billion across the UK, a 60% year-on-year increase in lending value compared with 2024. The number of small businesses it has backed since its founding in 2012 has risen to 96,000, up from 60,000 a year earlier.
iwoca’s own SME Expert Index shows small businesses are requesting larger loans. Loans in the £50,000 to £100,000 range accounted for 42% of all SME loan applications in Q1 2026, up from 27% in the same period of 2025, and the company cited that trend as a factor in its decision to expand its funding base. Some 57% of brokers surveyed by iwoca expect upward pressure on loan sizes to continue over the next six months.
Romain Guilleminet, iwoca’s head of capital markets, said the lender had grown to a scale at which it is making a material difference to thousands of small businesses, and that the new facility would allow it to extend that reach further.
iwoca was founded by Christoph Rieche, who remains chief executive, and James Dear. Its investor base includes Augmentum Fintech and CommerzVentures, the venture arm of Germany’s Commerzbank. The company has not commented publicly on the reported sale process.
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