Allica Bank, the UK digital bank that lends to established small businesses, has applied for a banking license in Sweden, its first move outside the UK since launching. The application, filed with the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, follows a $155 million Series D round in February that pushed Allica’s valuation close to $1.2 billion.
Allica has already set up a legal entity in Sweden and hired a local executive team, led by incoming Sweden chief executive Rickard Westlund, to build the business ahead of authorization. “Sweden has one of Europe’s most digital economies, with a well respected regulator, making it a natural choice for Allica’s first expansion outside the UK,” chief executive Richard Davies said. UK Economic Secretary to the Treasury Lucy Rigby called the move a sign of Allica “building on their success here in the UK and expanding into other European markets.”
For banking leaders, the choice of market says as much as the funding round. Allica built its UK business lending more than 4 billion pounds to over 15,000 established businesses by targeting a segment, companies with 5 to 250 employees, that incumbent banks serve poorly with slow, paper heavy underwriting. Other fintechs racing for their own bank charters have mostly stayed inside a single jurisdiction while they prove the model; Allica is instead betting that the same underwriting gap exists in Sweden’s bank concentrated lending market, and that a license lets it compete as a full bank rather than a partner riding on someone else’s balance sheet.
That distinguishes Allica’s approach from digital banks that expand through partnerships or e-money licenses first. Applying directly for a full Swedish banking license is slower and carries more regulatory scrutiny than a passporting or agency arrangement, but it gives Allica the same lending and deposit powers in Sweden that incumbent banks are now rebuilding their core systems to defend. If Sweden’s regulator approves, Allica has said the market becomes a platform for expanding further into the Netherlands and Ireland.
Source: Allica Bank
