Clearbank, Allica, Atom: The fast-growing future of UK fintech
Fintech has planted its flag firmly in the Square Mile.
Industry giants Monzo and Starling have become household names, helping London to established itself as a leading global fintech hub.
KPMG’s bi-annual fintech report showed UK fintech investment was at £7.9bn last year.
And now young firms are growing faster than ever, promising to send a boom through the City’s fintech eco-system.
Here are top five rapidly rising names that will represent the next wave of UK fintechs.
Allica Bank
Dubbed ‘Europe’s fastest growing start-up’ by the Times Hundred, Allica Bank had another record year in 2024.
Pre-tax profits surged 86 per cent to £29.9m as revenue soared 68 per cent to £292.1m in the last financial year.
The digital bank, which launched in 2020, specialises in lending to small and medium-sized enterprises.
Following the firm’s annual results, Richard Davies, Allica’s chief executive, told City PM the SME market was a “barren wasteland” five to ten years ago.
He said Allica’s “strategic focus” on the area was key to its rapid rise.
Davies added the company’s mantras – “none of the products are more than half done” – helped open the door to constant innovation and improvement.
ClearBank
London-based Clearbank, which is an enabler of real-time clearing and embedded banking, announced its first full-year results at group level earlier this month.
The firm’s fee-based income rocketed 63 per cent to £53.3m and total deposits were up 77 per cent to £10.8bn. Total revenue increased 30 per cent to £112.1m for the 2024 financial year.
Clearbank made a group pre-tax loss of £4.4m in 2025, but did so amidst expansion into European markets and implementation of its group structure.
In its 2023 financial year, the firm grew its net interest income by 142 per cent to 81.9m.
He added: “What’s great about Clearbank is that we sit at the centre of that – a large number of the leading fintechs are our customers, and we’re the banking platform that supports them.”
Atom Bank
Digital lender Atom Bank swung to its first annual pretax profit last year, after riding the wave of high interest rates.
The Durham-based fintech pocketed £7m in earnings after a 600 per cent surge in year-on-year operating profit to £27m. The firm’s costs rose just four per cent.
Its net interest income rose to £99.1m for the financial year ending March 2024. This was up from £75.3m in the previous period.
Co-founder and chief executive Mark Mullen told City PM last year: “We still have a way to go to get bigger.
“One year’s full profit is great, but give us another one. Let’s demonstrate to our investors that this is not an interest rate trick and we’ve created an actual sustainable business.”
Tandem Bank
Tandem Bank recorded its second consecutive year of profitability in 2024 as consumers were drawn to the fintech’s greener offering.
The previous financial year, its profit increased five-fold to £17.2m – compared to £3.6m the year prior. This was driven by 28.2 per cent growth in net interest income to £87.8m.
Deposits at the digital challenger more than doubled to £3.6bn.
The Blackpool-based firm has started to expand beyond its Second Charge mortgage offerings, which made up nearly 50 per cent of all lending, to green offerings in both home loans and motor finance.
Alex Mollart, the fintech’s boss, said: “Tandem’s strategy of becoming the UK’s greener, digital bank is working.”
Apron Payments
Payment services such as Apron have scaled up their abilities to streamline services and manage business’ finances.
The London-based fintech raised £22.4m in Series B funding in September 2024.
This followed an £11.2m Series A round in September 2023 that was backed by American tech tycoon Tony Fadell – the co-creator of the iPhone and iPod.
In the time between the two rounds, Apron said it bolstered its customer base by more than 20 times.
The funding aimed to boost hiring and launch a flurry of new accounting and payment tools for small businesses.