Allica Bank acquires Kriya to redefine SME lending

By Vriti Gothi

Allica Bank has acquired Kriya to reinvent finance for Britain’s established small and medium-sized enterprises. The move drives Allica into the fast-growing embedded finance market for the first time and strengthens its leadership in digital SME banking.

Through this strategic acquisition, Allica will integrate Kriya’s advanced embedded business PayLater solution, already powering flexible B2B payments for brands such as Halfords and through a partnership with Stripe, into its own ecosystem. The combined platform will enable thousands of established SMEs to access faster, more flexible working capital and seamless PayLater options at checkout. This milestone comes as Allica continues its rapid growth trajectory and advances its goal of achieving 10% market penetration among established SMEs by 2028, replacing the legacy presence of high street banks that have increasingly withdrawn from SME lending.

The acquisition underscores Allica’s commitment to reshaping the SME finance landscape through technology, innovation, and customer-centric design. By combining Allica’s relationship-led lending model with Kriya’s embedded payments infrastructure, the partnership creates a powerful new proposition for established businesses across the UK. Confidence among SMEs seeking funding has declined sharply in recent years, from 56% in 2019 to just 31%, while only one in ten businesses now have access to traditional loans or overdrafts, the lowest level since 2019. Against this backdrop, Allica’s enhanced working capital and embedded finance proposition are designed to bridge this critical funding gap.

Since launching lending operations in 2020, Allica has built a loan book of $4.6 billion to UK SMEs. With the addition of Kriya, the bank plans to deploy $1.3 billion in working capital finance over the next three years, supporting businesses that form the backbone of the UK economy. This marks Allica’s third successful acquisition, following its purchase and integration of AIB’s GB SME lending portfolio in 2021 and bridging finance specialist Tuscan Capital in 2024.

Richard Davies, CEO of Allica Bank, said, “For too long SMEs have struggled to access the flexible finance they need as the high street banks have retrenched. Allica is building something different, a better way to serve Britain’s established SMEs. 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. Our ambition is clear. We plan to lend £1 billion of working capital finance to SMEs over the next three years. This is our third acquisition, but our first in the embedded payments space, and it aligns well with our future potential international expansion.”