Allica Bank Files for Swedish Licence in Debut European Push, With Netherlands and Ireland in Its Sights
Allica Bank Files for Swedish Licence in Debut European Push, With Netherlands and Ireland in Its Sights #
UK digital business bank Allica Bank has taken its first step onto the European continent, submitting a banking licence application to Finansinspektionen, Sweden’s financial supervisory authority, as it looks to extend its small-business lending model beyond its home market.
It is the bank’s first expansion outside the United Kingdom. Alongside the regulatory filing, Allica has assembled a dedicated Swedish executive team: Rickard Westlund will lead the local operation, with Javier Ubillos as chief technology officer and Victor Ramstrom as chief product officer. The bank has also set up a new legal entity in Sweden.
Allica, founded in 2019, focuses on established businesses employing between five and 250 people, a segment it says accounts for roughly a third of UK GDP but has historically been underserved by high-street lenders. The bank said it selected Sweden because of high market concentration among incumbent banks, the country’s mature digital economy, and the reputation of its financial regulator.
Chief executive Richard Davies, a former chief operating officer at Revolut, said Sweden’s established businesses face many of the same challenges as their UK counterparts, where firms making an outsized contribution to the economy have too often been neglected by traditional banks. He added that Allica’s UK track record gives the bank confidence to expand, according to the company’s announcement.
The European expansion is backed in part by a $155 million Series D funding round completed earlier this year, which lifted Allica’s valuation to approximately $1.2 billion, placing it in the unicorn category. Investors in the round included Dubai-based Ventura Capital.
The bank has lent more than £4 billion to established British businesses since launching, and more than 15,000 companies use its current account. Over the past year, new loan originations came in at around £1.3 billion, lifting the overall portfolio by roughly 23 percent to just above £3 billion.
Sweden is not the bank’s final target. Davies has indicated that the Netherlands and Ireland are also being considered for subsequent entry as Allica pursues a broader northern European presence.
The Finansinspektionen application remains subject to review, and Allica said it would disclose further details about its Swedish plans only upon receiving formal authorisation. The Swedish regulator had not publicly responded to the submission at the time of reporting.
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