White Oak UK
UK SMB lender originally trading as LDF, rebranded under the White Oak group in 2018. Strong panel relationships with Funding Options, Capitalise and the Bank Referral Scheme. Covers unsecured term loans, asset finance and a niche professional-practice line for solicitors, accountants and dentists. Note: White Oak operates through multiple UK Companies House entities (CBILS-vehicle SPVs, NO.4, NO.5 and group companies); confirm the operating trading entity at publish time before citing a Companies House number.
Quick routing verdict
- Product: SMB term loans, asset finance, professional finance.
- Ticket band: £5k to £500k.
- Decision time: 24 hours to 5 business days.
- Pricing: Bespoke, quoted at offer.
- Soft search at quote stage: no credit-file footprint.
- FCA-authorised.
At a glance
- Legal entity
- White Oak UK group (multi-entity)
- Founded
- 2002
- Product
- SMB term loans, asset finance, professional finance
- Ticket range
- £5k to £500k
- Decision time
- 24 hours to 5 business days
- Ltd-only
- Lender accepts other structures, FundBiz routing is Ltd-only
- Last reviewed
- 2026-05-08
Why we route here
- Two-decade UK trading history under prior LDF brand.
- Strong professional-practice line for regulated firms.
- Panel-listed across major UK SME finance brokers.
- Same-day decisions on clean cases.
When we route elsewhere
- Pricing not headlined; quoted at offer.
- Most volume distributed via brokers and panels rather than direct.
- Brand recognition lower than the rebrand replaced.
- Hard search at full application.
Best fit applicants
- Established SMEs £25k to £250k
- Professional practices (legal, accounting, dental)
- Broker-introduced cases
Where White Oak UK is the wrong fit
- Self-serve sub-£10k
- Pre-revenue startups
- Pure rate-shoppers
If declined by White Oak UK
If your application to White Oak UK is declined, the FundBiz post-decline matcher routes by decline reason. Common alternatives in our panel are listed in the "When we route elsewhere" section above. See also our White Oak UK decline runbook for sector-specific routing detail.
Other panel lenders
- 365 Business Finance, Merchant cash advance
- Aldermore, Asset finance, invoice finance, commercial mortgages
- Allica Bank, SME term loan + commercial mortgage
- Bizcap, Specialist post-decline / fast cash
How we rate White Oak UK
This review is FundBiz's own editorial assessment, scored against a published framework. See our methodology for how we rate each lender.
Run the matcher
Tell us your turnover, sector and ticket size. We score against White Oak UK and the wider FundBiz panel, then surface the lenders most likely to approve. Limited companies, LLPs and partnerships of 4+ only.
Open matcher →Last reviewed: 2026-05-08. By Oliver Mackman.