British SME challenger bank Allica has reported a 55.2% increase in profit after tax, reaching £29.8m ($39.54m) in 2024, compared with £19.2m in 2023.

Marking the bank’s second full year of profitability, Allica attributed the growth to its “significant investment” in digital infrastructure, increasing revenue.

In the 12 months to 31 December 2024, Allica’s gross revenue rose to £292.1m from £173.9m.

The bank’s loan book expanded to over £3bn, while customer deposits exceeded £4bn.

It issued £1.1bn in new loans across its core lending portfolio, which includes asset finance, commercial mortgages, and other offerings such as bridging and growth finance.

The increase in interest income, up by £142.5m to £320.3m, was primarily due to loans and advances to customers.

Allica’s proprietary technology is tailored to serve established SMEs, which represent a third of the UK economy.  

The bank aims for a 10% market share in the SME banking sector within the next three years.  

This ambition is supported by the growth of its ‘Business Rewards Account’. 

Allica said its 2024 performance was driven by the expansion of its signature offering, the Business Rewards Account – a digital business current account tailored for SMEs.  

The bank’s expansion efforts that year also included the acquisition of bridging finance specialist Tuscan Capital.

Allica Bank CEO Richard Davies said: “Alongside giving established businesses a powerful business bank account that truly rewards them and the support to help them thrive, I’m proud that Allica also advocated for established SMEs more broadly too.

“We have helped drive tangible change to Basel 3.1 to support more SME lending and have pushed to improve the business savings market with our Great British Savings Squeeze campaign. We will continue to do so in 2025, including advocating for an expansion in the Growth Guarantee Scheme for SME finance, and an increase to the FSCS limit to help businesses earn better returns on their hard-earned cash.”