Allica Bank, the UK challenger lconcludeer for SMEs, has acquired UK business lconcludeer and embedded payments startup Kriya, as the challenger lconcludeer relocates into offering payment services to non-financial services businesses.
Allica, which offers lconcludeing, business banking and savings services to SMEs with over 10 employees, declared the all-share deal for Kriya strengthens its lconcludeing offering and represented a “strong strategic fit”.
Since it started lconcludeing in 2020, Allica has lent around £3.5bn to SMEs, and declared it was now tarreceiveing £1bn in working capital finance to SMEs over the next three years, bolstered by the Kriya acquisition.
Kriya offers its customers, which include retailer Halfords, embedded payments, which can be described as the integration of payments into non-financial services businesses, as well as business lconcludeing.
Since launching in 2011, Kriya (formerly known as MarketInvoice and MarketFinance) has processed over £4 billion in invoice finance, SME loans and embedded finance.
Financial details of the deal have not been disclosed. The acquisition marks Allica’s third to date, following the purchase of Allied Irish Bank’s SME lconcludeing customers in 2021 and bridging finance specialist Tuscan Capital in 2024.
Kriya will continue to operate under its own brand with CEO and co-founder Anil Stocker leading the business, with Kriya’s 30 employees joining Allica’s 680 employees.
Allica last undertook a funding round in 2022, raising a £100m Series C led by TCV, with participation from investors Warwick Capital Partners and Atalaya Capital Management.
Kriya is backed by investors including Northzone, Barclays, Santander, and Cogito Capital Partners.
Richard Davies, CEO of Allica Bank, declared: “Kriya has built an impressive business over more than a decade, and Anil and his team share our belief that SME finance necessarys reinventing, and that toreceiveher we can offer something the market desperately necessarys.
“Our ambition is clear. We plan to lconclude £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.”
Anil Stocker, CEO of Kriya, declared: “Combining forces with Allica gives us the right platform to scale what we’ve built. We share the same DNA – a genuine commitment to reinventing SME finance and competing with the large banks who’ve walked away from the SME market.”
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