Data Index
UK Business Lender Criteria Matrix 2026
The published eligibility criteria of 19 UK business lenders side by side: minimum trading time, minimum turnover (and whether it means total turnover, card sales or PayPal sales), credit and CCJ stance, sector exclusions and the business types each accepts. Every value is what the lender advertises on its own website, checked on 23 September 2026, with the source page linked. Where a lender publishes nothing on a point the cell says so. Enter your own trading time and monthly revenue to see which published minimums you clear.
Last updated: · Compiled by FundBiz · Download CSV (September 2026 edition) · Lender index: rates and decision times
14
publish a minimum trading time (the shortest is 3 months)
11
publish a revenue minimum we can compare (the lowest is £4,000 a month)
1
publish a specific CCJ rule
6
say anything about sectors they lend to or exclude
Check your figures against the published minimums
Nothing you enter leaves this page. It compares two numbers with each lender's advertised floor; it doesn't check credit and isn't an eligibility decision.
Worked example, 8 months trading and £11,000 a month: 4 lenders' published minimums met, 7 below a published minimum, 8 to check.
| Lender | Your figures | Min trading time | Min turnover | Credit and CCJs | Sectors | Business types | Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 365 Business Finance Revenue-based finance (merchant cash advance) Source | Check Clears what can be tested; one minimum is unpublished or not comparable | At least 6 months | Average card sales of at least £10,000 a monthMeasured on credit and debit card sales, not total turnover. | No credit check for a provisional quote; a soft search once approved. CCJ policy not published. | Not published | Not published | £10,000 to £500,000 |
| Allica Bank Business loan Source | Below Below published minimum: trading under 36 months | At least three years of filed accounts | No turnover figure published; needs evidence of at least 150% debt service cover | Not published. Secured by a personal guarantee from the directors. | Not published | Limited companies and LLPs in England, Scotland and Wales | £25,001 to £150,000 (rates 9.90% to 13.75%) |
| Bizcap Short-term business loans and line of credit Source | Below Below published minimum: revenue under £12,000 a month | At least 4 months | Monthly revenue of at least £12,000 | Says it lends "even if you have bad credit"; conditional offer made without a credit check, credit report may follow. | Not published | Needs an active Company Registration Number | £5,000 to £1,000,000 (lines of credit up to £500,000, per its FAQs page) |
| Capital on Tap Business credit card Source | Check Clears what can be tested; one minimum is unpublished or not comparable | No minimum trading history | Not published | No unsatisfied CCJs in the last 12 months, for the applicant or the business. | Excludes "high-risk" industries, including gambling, arms and defence, charities and non-profits, financial services, some real estate, and crypto businesses. | Ltd, LLP or PLC active at Companies House; no sole traders | Not published on the eligibility pages |
| Cubefunder Fixed-fee business loan Source | Meets Clears both published minimums | At least 3 months | Minimum £4,000 monthly revenue | Not published | No exclusions published; says it lends across many sectors. Doesn't lend to pre-revenue start-ups. | Limited companies registered in England or Wales (a separate product for sole traders up to £10,000) | £5,000 to £100,000 |
| Fleximize Flexiloan and Flexiloan Lite Source | Check Clears what can be tested; one minimum is unpublished or not comparable | 12+ months (Flexiloan); 6+ months (Flexiloan Lite) | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | £10,000 to £1,000,000 |
| Funding Alternative Short-term cash flow advance Source | Check Clears what can be tested; one minimum is unpublished or not comparable | 6+ months trading, and 6+ months business ownership | £25k+ turnover (the period isn't stated)Not compared by the filter because the site doesn't say whether £25k is monthly or annual. | Final approval subject to underwriting and credit checks. | Not published | Application form offers Ltd, LLP, sole proprietor and partnership | £10,000 to £250,000 |
| Funding Circle Term loan Source | Check Clears what can be tested; one minimum is unpublished or not comparable | Not published (assesses trading history) | Not published | With a poor credit history "you may still get approved, but at a higher interest rate". | Not published | Limited companies and LLPs (quote without affecting credit score) | £10,000 to £750,000 |
| Got Capital Revenue-based business advance Source | Meets Clears both published minimums | At least 3 months (12 months preferred for advances over £100,000) | At least £5,000 a month (higher for certain industries) | Says bad credit is accepted; no personal guarantee required. | Higher revenue minimum for some industries; which ones isn't published. | All UK-registered structures, including sole traders | £2,000 to £300,000 |
| iwoca Business loan (flexi-loan) Source | Check Clears what can be tested; one minimum is unpublished or not comparable | No minimum; under a year of trading caps the loan at £10,000 | No minimum published; borrow up to around 20% of annual turnover | Bad credit: "Possibly". Looks at how the business is doing, not only the credit score. Needs a director personal guarantee. | Not published | UK limited companies and LLPs; applicant 18 or over | £1,000 to £1,000,000 |
| LendingCrowd Term loan Source | Below Below published minimum: trading under 24 months | Two years, with two years of filed accounts | Turnover of at least £100,000The site gives no period; read here as annual turnover (£8,333 a month). | Not published. Unsecured up to £350,000 with a personal guarantee; security needed above that. | Not published | Limited companies and LLPs in England, Scotland or Wales | £75,000 to £500,000 |
| MCL Finance Business loans and merchant cash advance Source | Below Below published minimum: trading under 12 months; turnover under £15,000 a month | At least 1 year (business loans) | Turnover of at least £15,000 a month (business loans) | Says merchant cash advance approval is "not based on collateral or credit history". | Not published | UK-based private or limited companies | £5,000 to £250,000 |
| Outfund Revenue-based finance Source | Meets Clears both published minimums | At least 6 months | Around £10k a month in sales | Not published | Says it funds across sectors; no exclusions published. | Registered and trading in the UK, Spain or Germany | £10,000 to £500,000 |
| PayPal Working Capital Cash advance repaid from PayPal sales Source | Check Clears what can be tested; one minimum is unpublished or not comparable | PayPal business account open 90 days or more | At least £9,000 a year in PayPal salesMeasured on PayPal sales only, so the filter can't test it from total revenue. | No personal credit check; a soft credit check to present an offer. | Not published | UK sole traders, limited companies and partnerships | £1,000 to £200,000 (up to £300,000 for repeat funding) |
| Sigma Lending Unsecured business loan Source | Below Below published minimum: trading under 18 months; turnover under £12,500 a month | At least one and a half years | Turnover of at least £150,000 a yearAnnual figure; £12,500 a month when divided by 12. | Soft credit check. CCJ policy not published. | Not published | UK limited companies | £5,000 to £150,000 |
| SME Capital Growth and acquisition term loans Source | Below Below published minimum: trading under 36 months | At least 3 years | Earnings typically over £250k (earnings, not turnover)An earnings test, so the filter can't compare it with revenue. | Not published | Works across sectors; no exclusions published. | UK businesses | £0.5m to £5m |
| Swiftfund Unsecured business advance Source | Below Below published minimum: turnover under £20,000 a month | At least 6 months | Turnover of at least £20,000 a month | Poor credit history is "not a problem"; each application considered on its merits. | No exclusions published; lists sectors it serves. | Not published | £10,000 to £500,000 |
| Swishfund Unsecured business loan Source | Check Clears what can be tested; one minimum is unpublished or not comparable | At least one set of annual accounts filed at Companies House | Turnover of at least £50,000 in the past yearAnnual figure; £4,167 a month when divided by 12. | Not published | Not published | UK limited companies with a business bank account | £10,000 to £400,000 |
| Wayflyer Revenue-based finance Source | Meets Clears both published minimums | At least 6 months | £10,000+ in monthly sales | Soft credit check; decisions based on business performance, not personal credit history. | Not published | Incorporated in a supported country, including the UK | £10,000 to £20 million |
"Meets" means your two figures clear the trading and revenue minimums the lender publishes. "Check" means you clear what can be tested but the lender publishes no figure for one of them, or measures something the filter cannot see (card sales, PayPal sales, earnings).
"Below" means a published minimum is not met. Annual minimums are divided by 12 to compare them monthly; the row says where that was done. Figures are advertised criteria, checked 23 September 2026. Confirm on the lender's site before applying.
What the matrix shows
Trading time splits the market in two. Revenue-based and short-term lenders (Bizcap, Cubefunder, Got Capital, Wayflyer, Outfund, 365 Business Finance, Swiftfund) set their floor at 3 to 6 months and size the advance from bank or sales data. Term lenders want a longer record: Sigma Lending 18 months, LendingCrowd two years, Allica Bank three years of filed accounts.
A company under a year old is therefore choosing mostly between revenue-based products and iwoca, which caps lending at £10,000 until a business has traded for a year.
Revenue minimums aren't measured the same way. 365 Business Finance counts only card sales, PayPal Working Capital only PayPal sales, SME Capital looks at earnings rather than turnover, and Funding Alternative doesn't say whether its £25k is monthly or annual. Two lenders with the same headline figure can be testing quite different things, which is why the matrix records the basis alongside the number.
Credit and sector rules are the least published. Only Capital on Tap states a CCJ rule and names the industries it won't lend to. Several revenue-based lenders say they will look at bad credit, which tells you about appetite but not about any specific CCJ, default or arrears. If your file has adverse credit, the adverse credit guide covers how lenders weigh it, and what lenders actually assess explains the checks behind the published floor.
Lenders checked but not listed
These lenders are in FundBiz's lender data but have no row here, because no criteria could be confirmed from their own site on 23 September 2026:
- Capify: Its website refused automated access when checked, so its criteria couldn't be confirmed today.
- MaxCap: No eligibility criteria readable on its website when checked.
- Liberis: No eligibility minimums found on the website pages checked.
- YouLend: Offered mainly through partner platforms; no eligibility minimums found on the website pages checked.
- JPM Capital: No eligibility minimums found on the website pages checked.
- Boost Capital: Its website didn't resolve when checked.
Methodology
For each lender we read its own eligibility, FAQ or product page and recorded the criteria as the lender states them, with the page linked in the table. We didn't use broker listings, comparison sites or older notes. Where the lender says nothing on a point, the cell reads "Not published". Where a lender publishes a figure without a period, we say so and either read it the usual way (stated in the row) or leave it out of the filter.
The matrix covers lenders whose products FundBiz reviews and which publish at least some criteria. It isn't the whole market: high-street banks, asset finance and property lenders aren't in this edition. For their terms see the UK Business Finance Lender Index and each lender profile.
FundBiz is not a lender and does not decide eligibility. The filter compares your two numbers with published floors and nothing else. Published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0: reuse with attribution to FundBiz (fundbiz.co.uk).
Before you apply
Meeting the published floor gets an application considered; the file decides the rest. The eligibility self-score rates your file on the six things lenders weigh, and the loan application prep checklist lists the documents underwriters ask for.
FAQs
What is the minimum trading time for a UK business loan?
It depends on the lender and the product. Of the 19 lenders in this matrix, the published minimums run from no minimum at all (Capital on Tap's business credit card, and iwoca, which caps loans at £10,000 for businesses trading under a year) to three years of filed accounts (Allica Bank's business loan). Revenue-based and short-term lenders here start at 3 to 6 months (Fleximize's shorter Flexiloan Lite also takes 6 months); longer term loans want 12 months to 3 years.
What minimum turnover do business lenders ask for?
Where a lender publishes one, it's usually a monthly figure. In this matrix the lowest published monthly minimum is £4,000 and the highest is £20,000 a month (Swiftfund). Some lenders set an annual figure instead, such as Sigma Lending at £150,000 a year, and some measure only card sales or PayPal sales rather than total turnover, so check which figure the lender means.
Will lenders accept a business with a CCJ?
Few lenders publish a CCJ rule. Capital on Tap is the clearest in this matrix: no unsatisfied CCJs in the last 12 months, for the applicant or the business. Several revenue-based lenders say they consider bad credit, but that is a statement of appetite, not a rule about CCJs. Where a lender says nothing, the matrix says "Not published" rather than guessing.
If I meet the published minimums, will I be approved?
No. Published minimums are the floor for an application, not an approval test. Each lender also looks at bank statements, affordability, existing debt, the directors and the purpose of the funds. Falling below a published minimum is a much stronger signal than meeting one.
Where do these figures come from?
Each row was read from the lender's own website on 23 September 2026, and the source page is linked in the table. They're advertised criteria, not FundBiz's assessment. Lenders change their criteria without notice, so confirm on the lender's site before you apply.
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