What credit score do I need to get a business loan?

There is no single UK-wide business credit score threshold, and requirements vary by lender. Mainstream and established lenders such as Funding Circle and Close Brothers check both the business credit file and directors' personal credit, and generally decline applicants with unsatisfied County Court Judgements or recent insolvency. Alternative lenders such as iwoca and Bizcap weight cash flow and Open Banking data more heavily than the credit score itself, which is why they can approve businesses that a mainstream lender would turn down. Checking your credit file with a UK credit reference agency before applying is a useful first step.

How do I get a business loan with 1 year of trading history?

One year of trading rules out lenders that require 24 months, such as Close Brothers and LendingCrowd, but several panel lenders go lower. iwoca accepts businesses trading for 3+ months, Bizcap and Nucleus Commercial Finance accept 6+ months, and Capital on Tap accepts 12+ months. These lenders typically look more closely at recent bank statements and monthly revenue than at a long trading track record. Start Up Loans, backed by the British Business Bank, requires no minimum trading history at all for pre-revenue applicants.

How long does it take to get a business loan approved?

Approval speed varies widely by lender and product. iwoca, Capital on Tap, Bizcap, Fleximize, Capify, and Nucleus Commercial Finance typically decide within 24 hours, with Capital on Tap sometimes deciding within minutes. Close Brothers takes 3 to 5 working days and LendingCrowd 5 to 7 working days, reflecting their fuller manual underwriting. Start Up Loans is the slowest on the panel at 4 to 8 weeks, because the process includes a business plan review and mentoring rather than a straightforward credit decision.

Do I need a personal guarantee to get a business loan?

Most unsecured business loans from panel lenders such as Bizcap, Fleximize, and Nucleus Commercial Finance require a personal guarantee from directors, meaning a director is personally liable if the business cannot repay. Secured lending against property or a specific asset, such as asset finance from Aldermore or Close Brothers, is more likely to rely on the asset as security rather than a personal guarantee, though this varies by deal size. A personal guarantee is a legal commitment, so understanding exactly what is being guaranteed before signing matters more than the loan terms themselves.

What documents do I need to get a business loan?

Lenders typically ask for filed accounts (usually the last 2 years), 3 to 6 months of business bank statements, and VAT returns if the business is VAT-registered. If the filed accounts are more than 9 months old, management accounts covering the current period are usually requested too. Businesses with 25%+ shareholders need to provide ID and proof of address for each of them. Fintech lenders often accept Open Banking access instead of uploaded bank statements, which speeds up the process.

How to Get a Business Loan in the UK: Lendus

What UK Business Loan Lenders Actually Require

Every lender publishes broadly similar language about “trading history” and “turnover,” but the actual numbers vary a lot once you compare them side by side. Looking at the panel of lenders on this site that offer business loans (as distinct from pure banking products, invoice finance, or property-only lending), the spread looks like this:

Lender	Minimum Trading History	Minimum Turnover	Typical Decision Time
iwoca	3+ months	£25,000	Within 24 hours (often hours via Open Banking)
Capital on Tap	12+ months	£24,000	Same day, often within minutes
Bizcap	6+ months	£120,000	Within 24 hours
Fleximize	6+ months	£60,000	Within 24 hours
Nucleus Commercial Finance	6+ months	£50,000	Within 24 hours
Capify	6+ months (business loan)	£10,000/month	Within 24 hours
Funding Circle	2+ years	£50,000	Within 24 hours (funds in ~3 days)
Aldermore	12+ months	£100,000 (most products)	Same-day on asset finance to £250,000
LendingCrowd	24+ months	£100,000	5–7 working days
Close Brothers	24+ months	£250,000	3–5 working days
Start Up Loans	None required (pre-revenue)	No minimum	4–8 weeks

Two things stand out. First, the gap between the most flexible and strictest lenders is large: iwoca will look at a 3-month-old business, while Close Brothers and LendingCrowd want two full years of accounts. Second, decision speed roughly tracks how automated the underwriting is; Open Banking-led lenders decide in hours, while Start Up Loans, which reviews a full business plan, takes weeks.

Step 1: Match the Loan Type to Your Need

Before approaching any lender, work out which product fits:

Unsecured term loan. No asset security. Covers most panel lenders (Funding Circle, iwoca, Bizcap, Fleximize, Nucleus). Faster decisions, higher rates.
Asset finance or secured lending. Backed by property or the financed asset (Aldermore, Close Brothers, Lombard). Lower rates, longer approval times, more paperwork.
Merchant cash advance. Repaid as a percentage of card sales, priced as a factor rate rather than an APR (365 Business Finance, Capify, Liberis, and YouLend all use factor rates of roughly 1.1x to 1.5x the advance). Suits card-heavy retail and hospitality businesses with strong sales volume but thinner trading history.
Government-backed start-up loan. Start Up Loans offers up to £25,000 per director at a fixed rate, with no trading history requirement, aimed at pre-revenue and early-stage founders.

Applying for the wrong product wastes a credit search. A business with 4 months of trading and strong card sales is a better fit for a merchant cash advance or iwoca than for Close Brothers.

Step 2: Check Your Numbers Against Real Lender Minimums

Use the table above to identify which lenders are even worth applying to. If your trading history is under 6 months, iwoca (3+ months) is the most accessible on the panel; Capify’s merchant cash advance line accepts 4+ months. If your turnover is under £50,000, Capital on Tap (£24,000) and iwoca (£25,000) sit at the accessible end, while Close Brothers (£250,000) is out of reach until turnover grows.

Step 3: Gather the Documents Lenders Ask For

Document	What Lenders Want
Filed accounts	Usually the last 2 years
Bank statements	Last 3–6 months, business account
Management accounts	If filed accounts are more than 9 months old
VAT returns	Last 4 quarters, if VAT-registered
ID and proof of address	For directors/shareholders with 25%+ ownership
Existing lending statements	Outstanding balances and monthly payments

Fintech lenders such as iwoca frequently accept Open Banking access in place of uploaded statements, which removes a manual step from the process.

Step 4: Understand Personal Guarantees and Credit Searches

A personal guarantee (PG) is a director’s legal commitment to repay the loan personally if the business cannot. Most panel lenders offering unsecured business loans, including Bizcap, Fleximize, and Nucleus Commercial Finance, ask for one; their credit-requirement text specifically names it as a standard condition. Secured lending against a physical asset or property relies more heavily on that security, which can reduce (though not always remove) the need for a PG.

A soft credit search checks your file without leaving a visible mark other lenders can see, and does not affect your credit score. A hard credit search is recorded and visible to other lenders, and several searches in a short window can lower your score. iwoca and other Open Banking-led lenders typically run a soft search at the initial stage and only convert to a hard search on final approval. Comparing options through a soft-search stage before committing to a full application avoids stacking up hard searches unnecessarily.

Step 5: Apply in the Right Order

Compare options with a soft search first, rather than applying to several lenders directly and generating multiple hard searches.
Check your existing bank, which already holds your transaction history and may offer preferential terms.
Move to alternative lenders if declined. Several panel lenders explicitly state they consider applicants that mainstream lenders turn down: Bizcap and Capify base decisions primarily on cash flow and bank statement analysis rather than credit score alone, and Fleximize considers adverse credit case by case.
Consider Start Up Loans if the business is under 36 months old or pre-revenue and mainstream criteria are out of reach.

Step 6: Read the Offer Before You Accept

Before accepting any offer, check:

Rate type. Some panel lenders quote an APR (Funding Circle, Close Brothers, Aldermore); others quote a monthly rate (Bizcap, Nucleus) or a factor rate for merchant cash advance products (Capify, Liberis, YouLend). These are not directly comparable without converting them, so check the total cost of the facility rather than the headline figure.
Total repayable amount, not just the monthly instalment.
Early repayment terms. Some facilities charge a fee for repaying early; others don’t.
What the personal guarantee actually covers, and whether it is capped at a percentage of the balance.
Any conditions attached to drawdown, particularly for asset finance or larger secured facilities.

Rates Vary More Than the Criteria

Once a business clears a lender’s trading history and turnover bar, rate is usually the deciding factor between two or three options that would all say yes. The spread on this panel is wide. Start Up Loans charges a fixed 6% APR to every approved borrower, regardless of credit profile, because the scheme is priced the same for all applicants. Aldermore’s representative APR is 9.3% and Close Brothers’ is 9.9%, both reflecting asset-secured or lower-risk lending. Funding Circle’s representative APR is 13.9%, and Tide’s business loan sits at a representative 24.9% APR. Fleximize (27.6% APR representative), Nucleus Commercial Finance (36% APR representative), and Bizcap (43.2% APR representative) sit higher, reflecting faster, less document-heavy underwriting on shorter-history or cash-flow-led applications. Capital on Tap (49.8% APR representative) and iwoca (49.9% APR representative) are the highest quoted APRs on the panel, though both also serve some of the shortest trading histories and lowest turnover minimums, which is part of why the rate is higher.

The pattern holds across the panel: lenders that accept less trading history, lower turnover, or weaker credit generally charge more for it. A business that can wait to build 24 months of accounts and clear £250,000 turnover has access to Close Brothers’ sub-10% rate; a business at 3 months old with £25,000 turnover is more likely to be looking at iwoca’s higher rate band. Neither is right or wrong; the rate reflects the risk the lender is pricing, not the quality of the business.

Lendus Is an Introducer, Not a Lender

Lendus is an introducer, not a lender, not a credit broker, and does not give regulated financial advice. Lendus does not approve or decline applications; every lending decision, and every figure in this guide, sits with the individual lender named. The trading history, turnover, and speed figures above reflect what each lender states about its own products and can change, so it’s worth checking directly with the lender before applying.

How do I get a business loan in the UK?

In short