Business lenders on the Lendus panel that will write a facility of £25,000 or less, with the minimum trading history each one publishes, plus 5 picks for early-stage businesses.
Last reviewed by the Lendus editorial team. Lendus is an introducer, not a lender.
Borrowing as a startup is harder than it is for an established business, and the reason is visible in one column: minimum trading history. Most business lenders publish a floor of 12 months or more, and a handful publish 3 years. A small number publish 3 to 6 months, and the government-backed Start Up Loans scheme publishes no trading history requirement at all for start-ups. This page lists every business lender on our panel that will write a facility of £25,000 or less, because a lender whose smallest deal is £200,000 is not an option for a business that needs £15,000.
5 of the 15 panel lenders below, chosen for a specific job. Every figure in these cards is read from that lender's own record. The full panel follows.
The government-backed Start Up Loans scheme lends £500 to £25,000 at a fixed 7.5% annual interest rate on the reducing balance, the same rate for every borrower, and requires no trading history for start-ups. It was raised from 6% for applications from 6 April 2026, so older guides quoting 6% are out of date. It is also the slowest option here at 4 to 8 weeks, because a business plan is reviewed and mentoring is included. The loan is a regulated personal credit agreement, assessed on your personal credit rather than the company's.
iwoca publishes a 3 month minimum trading history and £25,000 of turnover, the lowest trading floor of any commercial lender in this table, and lends £1,000 to £500,000 at 2% to 6% per month on the outstanding balance. It decides within 24 hours and often within hours using Open Banking data, and its Flexi-Loan lets you draw down more than once from an approved facility without reapplying. A monthly rate is not an APR, so read that 2% as a monthly figure.
Bizcap publishes a 4 month minimum trading history and £120,000 of turnover, lends £10,000 to £500,000 unsecured at 1.5% to 5% per month, and decides within 24 hours. It states that it accepts adverse credit and is aimed at businesses that have been declined elsewhere, which is the job it does on this page. The turnover floor is the catch: it is the highest of these five picks.
Nucleus Commercial Finance lends from £3,000, publishes a 6 month minimum trading history and £50,000 of turnover, and decides within 24 hours at 1.5% to 5% per month. The £3,000 floor matters for a young business buying one thing rather than raising working capital, and Nucleus is accredited by the British Business Bank.
Capital on Tap gives same-day decisions, typically within minutes, on £500 to £250,000 of revolving credit at 1.25% to 3% per month on the outstanding balance, so you only pay for what you draw. It publishes a 12 month minimum trading history and £24,000 of turnover, which is a higher bar than the other picks here but a low one for a card and credit line, and includes free employee cards with individual limits.
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Check EligibilityEvery business lender on the Lendus panel whose smallest published facility is £25,000 or less. That cut is mechanical rather than editorial: it removes lenders that only write facilities far larger than an early-stage business needs. Read the minimum trading history column first, because on this page it is the column that decides whether you qualify.
Lenders that publish a rate are listed first, then those that quote every deal individually. Within each group the order is alphabetical, so a lender's position in this table is not a score.
| Lender | Facility size | Published rate | Decision speed | Minimum trading history | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aldermore Bank | £2k to £10m | 4.5% to 20%per year | Same-day decisions on asset finance up to £250,000; 3–5 days for larger deals | 12+ months for most products | |
| Bizcap | £10k to £500k | 1.5% to 5%per month | Within 24 hours | At least 4 months | |
| Capify † | £3,500 to £500k | 1.1 to 1.5factor rate, not an APR | Decision typically within 24 hours; funds within 1–3 business days | 4+ months for merchant cash advance; 6+ months for business loan | |
| Capital on Tap | £500 to £250k | 1.25% to 3%per month | Same day, decisions typically within minutes | 12+ months | |
| Close Brothers | £10k to £5m | 5% to 18%per year | Within 3–5 working days | 24+ months | |
| Fleximize † | £5k to £500k | 0.9% to 3.9%per month | Within 24 hours | 6+ months | |
| Funding Circle | £10k to £500k | 6.9% to 36%per year | Decision within 24 hours; funds typically within 3 business days | 1+ year | |
| iwoca | £1k to £500k | 2% to 6%per month | Within 24 hours; many decisions made within hours via Open Banking | 3+ months | |
| LendingCrowd | £25k to £500k | 6% to 18%per year | Within 5–7 working days | 24+ months | |
| Nucleus Commercial Finance | £3k to £2m | 1.5% to 5%per month | Within 24 hours | 6+ months | |
| Start Up Loans | £500 to £25k | 7.5%per year | Application to decision: typically 4–8 weeks (includes business plan review and mentoring) | For start-ups: no trading history required. For existing businesses: must have been trading less than 60 months | |
| Tide | £1k to £500k | 7.9% to 49.9%per year | Business account: same day. Loan/credit line decisions: typically within 24–48 hours | 12+ months for credit products; account available from day one | |
| Investec | £5k to £100m | No public rate card | No standard timeline is published. Facilities are arranged through a dedicated relationship banker and underwritten individually, so timescales depend on the complexity and size of the deal rather than an automated same-day decision. | Not publicly stated. Investec assesses each business individually rather than publishing a minimum trading history requirement. | |
| Paragon Bank | £5k to £1m | No public rate card | Not publicly stated; timescales are assessed per deal based on complexity and asset type. | Not publicly stated; assessed as part of underwriting. | |
| White Oak UK | £5k to £500k | No public rate card | White Oak UK states an average loan decision turnaround of around 4 hours, though this is not a guaranteed timescale for every deal. | Not publicly stated; assessed as part of underwriting. |
Figures are taken from each lender's own published material on the date shown and are indicative, not offers. Where a lender publishes no rate we say so rather than estimating one. A monthly rate and a factor rate are not APRs and do not convert cleanly into one.
A lender's published rate can cover more than one of its products. Each lender's profile carries the full note, including which product the figure applies to and any fees charged on top.
† Lendus has not confirmed the regulatory status of Capify, Fleximize against a primary source, so this page makes no regulatory claim about them. Check the FCA Register at register.fca.org.uk before you commit to any lender.
Reviewed 25 August 2026. This page is built from the Lendus lender panel rather than from a shortlist. Every provider whose record carries business loans, and that will write a facility of £25,000 or less appears in the table below, in an order generated from the records themselves: lenders that publish a rate come first, then lenders that quote every deal individually, alphabetically within each group. Position in that table is not a score. The picks above it are editorial, and "best" here means best for a stated job, such as the lowest published trading history requirement, the cheapest published rate or the smallest facility. The reason is written next to each pick, so you can disagree with it. We do not score lenders out of 5 and we do not rank them against one another, because the right lender depends on your size, your trading history and what you are funding. Rates, facility sizes, decision times and eligibility are taken from each lender's own published material on the date shown against it, and are indicative rather than offers. Where a lender publishes no rate, we print that rather than estimating one, and we print a rate in the unit the lender quotes it in, because a monthly rate and a factor rate are not APRs. We make no statement about a firm's regulatory status unless we have confirmed it against a primary source and recorded that source on the lender's own page; where we have not, we say so and point you to the FCA Register.
Lendus receives a commission or referral fee from brokers and lenders when a business we introduce goes on to receive funding. It does not affect the rates you are offered, and it cannot affect the order of the table above, which is generated from the lender records rather than set by hand.
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