Bizcap alternatives: six UK lenders for fast short-term money
By the CapExpand team
Reviewed by Alex Beardsley, Founder · UK commercial finance broker
Facts checked 7 September 2026 · first published 7 September 2026
Read against bizcap.co.uk, swishfund.co.uk, cubefunder.com, iwoca.co.uk, fleximize.com and Companies House; 365 Finance and YouLend figures are those on our own reviews of each lender.
Bizcap sells speed. Approval in as little as 3 hours on its Fast Business Loan, money the same day, 4 months of trading and £12,000 of monthly revenue to qualify, and an initial offer before any credit check is run. Its pricing is a factor rate plus an establishment fee, and neither number appears anywhere on its site. That combination is what brings most people to this page: they liked the yes, then wanted to know what it cost.
Below are six lenders on our panel that do the same job, or the part of it a given business actually needs. None is a straight swap. Two of them publish monthly rates where Bizcap publishes nothing, three charge interest that falls if you repay early, and two take repayment from card sales rather than by a fixed direct debit. Every figure was checked on 7 September 2026 against the lender's own pages.
One honest note on where we stand. Bizcap is on our panel and we place business with it. We place less with it than its speed claims might suggest, because in the deals we arrange a business that can wait two working days usually has cheaper money available. Where it cannot wait, or owns property and needs six figures inside 72 hours, Bizcap keeps its seat, and the last section says so.
Why people look past Bizcap
The speed premium is the first reason. Bizcap is candid that its price is a fixed fee set from creditworthiness, term and purpose, plus an establishment fee agreed up front, and that it publishes neither. A factor rate fixes the total repayable on day one, so a 12-month loan cleared in month six costs the same as one run to term unless Bizcap agrees a discount, which it says it can do and does not quantify. Against a lender that charges on the outstanding balance for the days you hold it, that structure is the whole cost difference.
The UK review base is thin. Bizcap's UK Trustpilot profile held about 24 reviews scoring 3.8 when we checked in September 2026 (Trustpilot blocks direct reads, so that is from a search snippet). The 4.8 and 4.9 scores Bizcap quotes on its own pages belong to the group's larger profiles, which are mostly Australian and international customers. The UK company, Bizcap Limited, was incorporated in January 2023, traded as Finbiz Funding Limited until July 2025 and launched to UK borrowers in April 2024. None of that is a mark against it. It is simply less track record than the 100,000-plus global loan count implies.
The security is more than the marketing reads. Bizcap's FAQ states that it may take personal guarantees from directors and that on any loan above £30,000 it will take a charge over the assets of the borrower and its guarantors. Its footer records an FCA registration (994366) for anti-money-laundering purposes only. A fast loan wearing an unsecured label that carries a charge over business assets from £30,001 upwards is a secured facility in every way that matters, and some directors would rather give a guarantee alone.
Then the cadence. Daily or weekly direct debits, weekdays only, suit a business with money landing most days. A business paid on 30-day invoices finds the same debit painful by the second week. Bizcap also states that businesses which did not get as much as they hoped from another lender are welcome to apply for more, which is useful once and dangerous twice: stacking short-term fixed-fee loans is how most of the distressed cases we see got that way.
The alternatives at a glance
| Lender | Product | Range | Min trading | Min turnover | Repayment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Swishfund | Unsecured business loan | £10,000 to £400,000 | One set of filed accounts | £50,000 a year | Weekly or monthly direct debit |
| Cubefunder | Fixed-cost short-term loan | £5,000 to £100,000 | 3 months | £4,000 a month | Fixed deduction every working day (weekly available) |
| iwoca | Flexi-Loan credit facility | £1,000 to £1,000,000 | None published (start-ups capped at £10,000) | None published | Monthly; interest per 30 days on the drawn balance |
| Fleximize | Flexiloan and Flexiloan Lite term loans | £10,000 to £500,000 unsecured (£1,000,000 secured) | 6 months (Lite) or 12 months | £5,000 a month | Monthly; interest recalculated on early settlement |
| 365 Finance | Merchant cash advance | £10,000 to £500,000 | 6 months | £10,000 a month in card sales | Up to 16% of daily card takings |
| YouLend | Merchant cash advance (embedded) | £3,000 to £2,000,000 | 3 months of card sales | Around £1,500 a month in card sales | Percentage of daily card sales (up to 30%) |
Published criteria as at 7 September 2026; every figure is subject to the lender's own checks. Inclusion is a fact about the market, not an endorsement.
Swishfund
Swishfund is the closest like-for-like on shape: 3 to 24 months, unsecured, limited-company lending, money within 24 hours on loans under £75,000 (its FAQ says a couple of hours after acceptance) and 48 hours to 3 working days above that. The difference is that Swishfund publishes its price. Interest runs at 1.1% to 3% a month depending on loan size, plus a one-off arrangement fee added to the loan, whose percentage it does not publish.
Know one thing before comparing: the interest is straight-line, and Swishfund says so on its own site. The monthly rate is charged against the original amount for the whole term even as the balance falls, so 1.5% a month straight-line costs roughly what 3% a month on a reducing balance would. Compare total repayable in pounds, never monthly rates. Early settlement carries no fee, with interest charged to the end of the calendar month you settle in, so clearing early does save money in a way Bizcap's fixed fee does not without a negotiated discount.
What it does not substitute is the young-company route. Swishfund wants at least one set of annual accounts filed at Companies House and £50,000 of turnover in the past year, which in practice rules out most businesses under about 18 months old. Bizcap's four-month floor is open to them; Swishfund's is not. Structures are Ltd, PLC or LLP, with no sole traders. Every personal guarantor has a video call with Swishfund before payout. Its Trustpilot profile held 4.3 from around 27 reviews at our check, a base as thin as Bizcap's UK one.
Cubefunder
Cubefunder competes for the same young, small, imperfect-credit borrower Bizcap is built for, with a lower published entry bar: 3 months of trading, £4,000 of monthly revenue, and an FAQ that says adverse credit does not disqualify an applicant. Loans run £5,000 to £100,000 over 3 to 12 months for new applicants, with funds quoted within 48 hours. Like Bizcap it prices with a fixed total cost rather than a rate, and like Bizcap it publishes no figures.
The mechanics differ in two ways worth weighing. Cubefunder divides the fixed cost of the loan by the number of working days in the term and collects that sum every working day (a weekly schedule is also available), a smoother version of Bizcap's daily debit. And it publishes no late payment charges where an overrun is agreed in advance; the condition is a call before the missed payment, not after. Early settlement carries no fee, though Cubefunder does not state that the fixed cost falls when you settle early.
What it does not substitute is size and geography. £100,000 is the ceiling for a new customer, against Bizcap's £500,000 on its small business loan and £1,000,000 secured. Cubefunder's published scope is limited companies registered in England or Wales, so Scottish and Northern Irish companies are outside it, and it excludes accountants, financial services firms and debt collection agencies. A personal guarantee from each controlling director is required. Cubefunder also runs a separate regulated sole-trader loan of £5,000 to £10,000, which Bizcap, with its company registration number requirement, does not match.
iwoca
iwoca is the substitute for the business that wanted Bizcap's speed but does not want to pay a fixed fee for money it may not need for the whole term. The Flexi-Loan is a limit of £1,000 to £1,000,000 held for anything from one day to five years. You draw what you need and pay interest per 30 days on the drawn balance only, from 1.5% per 30 days (iwoca's FAQ gives a range of 1.5% to 5.7% a month). Repay and the interest stops. iwoca charges nothing for early repayment and says more than 20% of its customers repay ahead of schedule within their first six months.
Speed holds up against Bizcap. iwoca states a decision within 24 hours in almost all cases and money in the account within hours of approval; its record, which it labels as such, is 2 minutes 37 seconds. It requires a personal guarantee from at least one director, takes no charge over assets, and works with UK limited companies and LLPs. Sole traders are not listed. Its Trustpilot profile held 4.7 from over 11,000 reviews at our check.
What it does not substitute is Bizcap's appetite at the bottom of the market. iwoca publishes no trading or turnover minimums but weights the current strength of the business, caps start-ups at a £10,000 limit, and sizes limits at roughly one month's revenue or around 20% of annual turnover. A business with £12,000 of monthly revenue and four months of history will get a smaller number from iwoca than from Bizcap, if it gets one. The representative example is 3.33% per 30 days (49% APR representative), and borrowing beyond 12 months typically adds a fee of 5% to 6%. Held near its limit for years the facility is expensive; drawn for weeks, it usually beats a fixed fee.
Fleximize
Fleximize is where we would usually place a business that came in asking about Bizcap because it wanted a fast yes, but which turns out to have a year of trading and a homeowner director. The Flexiloan runs 12 to 60 months at 0.9% to 2.9% a month; the Flexiloan Lite, for businesses trading six months or more, runs 3 to 12 months at 1.9% to 3.9% a month. There are no set-up or arrangement fees when applying directly, and the Penalty-Free Promise recalculates interest on early settlement so you pay only for the days you had the loan. Fleximize says customers who repay early save an average of 44% of their total interest.
Decisions come in as little as 24 hours with same-day funding on approval: slower than Bizcap's 3-hour claim, faster than most people expect. Loans are sized at up to four months of revenue, and top-ups and repayment holidays open after three successful repayments. The published representative example for loans under £25,000 is 41.1% APR, built on 34.9% fixed a year on £15,000 over 18 months (£1,082.20 a month, £19,479.60 in total). For a small, young borrower that is the honest anchor, not the 0.9% floor.
What it does not substitute is the non-homeowner. Fleximize's FAQ states that it can only support non-homeowners who have been trading for over 36 months, and then only up to £20,000. A personal guarantee from at least one director or shareholder is required on every loan, secured loans take an equitable charge, and sole traders and non-limited partnerships with fewer than four partners can apply only for loans over £25,000. If nobody on the board owns property, Bizcap's four-month, no-homeowner route still exists and Fleximize's does not.
365 Finance
For a card-heavy business, the real alternative to a fixed daily debit is a product that takes a share of card sales instead. 365 Finance advances £10,000 to £500,000 against future card takings, collects at most 16% of daily card sales at source (a hard cap in its underwriting), and asks for 6 months of trading and £10,000 a month in card turnover. A quiet week means a smaller repayment. Bizcap's direct debit does not care that it is January.
Pricing is a fixed fee on the advance, so as with Bizcap the total is set on day one and early repayment saves nothing. Where it differs is in the people. 365 runs named account managers and human underwriting, and in our placements it is the lender that most often takes a deal an automated decline has just rejected, a single satisfied CCJ being the typical case. Funds land reliably in 24 to 48 hours from a complete application, and its Trustpilot score sits between 4.6 and 4.8 across its profiles.
What it does not substitute is anything not paid on cards. A business taking most of its money by invoice or bank transfer has nothing for 365 to collect against. And the 16% cap sizes the offer as well as protecting cash flow, so a business doing £40,000 a month on cards will not be offered six figures whatever its accounts say. Read our YouLend vs 365 Finance comparison for how the two card-split lenders divide the market.
YouLend
YouLend is the card-split lender with the lowest entry point we know of: three months of card sales and around £1,500 a month. It advances from about £3,000 up to a £2,000,000 ceiling, though most of the deals we place with it sit between £5,000 and £25,000. Its marketing quotes a decision in 24 hours and funding in 48, and the fastest clean cases fund the same day through open banking. It publishes no rate card; the fee is fixed per deal.
The trade against Bizcap is cost and flex against certainty. YouLend's fee at its best partnership pricing sits at the cheap end of the mainstream advance market, and the repayment moves with your takings. In exchange, the daily sweep can run as high as 30% of card sales on a stretched advance, and a business that puts no sales through its card machine for twenty business days is in default. Personal guarantees from the directors are standard.
What it does not substitute is Bizcap's tolerance of a poor credit file. YouLend underwrites on card turnover and on director credit, and recent defaults or active CCJs usually produce a decline, where Bizcap advertises bad credit accepted and a conditional offer before any credit check. An advance is also not a loan: a top-up generally opens at 60% repaid, and there is no fixed end date, only an estimated one.
When Bizcap is still the right call
Bizcap's bridging product is a genuine niche. It lends £150,000 to £1,000,000 for up to 12 weeks to businesses that own property and have a clear exit, quotes funds in as little as 72 hours, and says it prices up to 65% below its own secured loan. Nobody else on this page writes that. A company with a property, a contract to complete and a fortnight to do it is a Bizcap case, not an iwoca one.
The low-documentation route is the other. Bizcap lifted its low-doc cap to £300,000 in January 2026, offers an initial decision without a credit check, and accepts businesses with bad credit and other lenders already on their books. Four months of trading and £12,000 of monthly revenue is one of the lowest published entry bars in the UK market, and the secured loan (£30,000 to £1,000,000, funds from 48 hours) opens at five months. For a business that will be declined on paper everywhere else, that appetite is the product, and the factor rate is its price.
Before signing either, the things to have in writing are the total repayable in pounds including the establishment fee, the early-settlement discount Bizcap says it offers, and exactly what the charge over assets above £30,000 covers. Our cost calculator turns a factor-rate offer into an equivalent annual cost in about a minute, and our personal guarantee guide covers what a director is actually signing.
Check the whole panel in one go
Tell us your numbers once and we say which of these lenders your business fits, and which would decline, before anything is submitted. We arrange; the lender decides.
Frequently asked questions
Sources and method
Facts on this page were checked against the sources below on 7 September 2026. Where a lender does not publish a figure we say so rather than estimate it.
- Bizcap: Business loans (product ranges, criteria, speed)
- Bizcap: FAQs (3 to 12 month terms, factor rate and establishment fee, early settlement discount, personal guarantees, charge over assets above £30,000, stacking, credit checks)
- Bizcap: Fast Business Loans (£5,000 to £150,000, 4 months trading, £12,000 monthly revenue, 3-hour approvals)
- Bizcap: Secured Business Loans (£30,000 to £1,000,000, 5 months trading, funds from 48 hours)
- Bizcap: Bridging Finance (£150,000 to £1,000,000, up to 12 weeks, property ownership, 72 hours)
- Bizcap: Low-doc loan cap lifted to £300,000 (15 January 2026)
- Bizcap: About us (founded 2019 in Australia)
- PR Newswire, 8 December 2025: Bizcap UK lifts lending limit to £1m (UK launch April 2024)
- Companies House: Bizcap Limited, 14591050 (incorporated January 2023 as Finbiz Funding Limited)
- Trustpilot: Bizcap UK (score and count as at our check, via search snippet)
- Swishfund: FAQs (amounts, 3 to 24 months, 1.1% to 3% a month, straight-line basis, arrangement fee, early settlement, eligibility, speed)
- Swishfund: How it works (documents, GoCardless direct debit, guarantor video call)
- Swishfund: Business loans (Ltd, PLC or LLP; 24-hour funding line)
- Cubefunder: homepage (fixed cost of credit, no late payment charges, 48 hours, eligibility)
- Cubefunder: FAQ (£5,000 to £100,000, 3 to 12 months, working-day deductions, pre-agreed overruns, early settlement, personal guarantee, excluded sectors, secondary financing)
- Cubefunder: Sole traders (£5,000 to £10,000, England and Wales)
- iwoca: Flexi-Loan (amounts, term, from 1.5% per 30 days, representative example, longer-term fee, early repayment, 20% repay early, record payout)
- iwoca: FAQ (1.5% to 5.7% a month, one month’s revenue, £10,000 start-up cap, unsecured)
- iwoca: homepage (24-hour decisions, personal guarantee from at least one director, Ltd or LLP, 20% of turnover)
- Fleximize: Flexiloan and Flexiloan Lite (amounts, terms, monthly rates, fees, personal guarantee, top-ups)
- Fleximize: FAQs (homeowner rule, unsecured £500,000 cap, four months’ revenue, Penalty-Free Promise, 44% average saving, sole trader threshold, same-day funds)
- Fleximize: Loan calculator (representative example for loans under £25,000)
- 365 Finance and YouLend: ranges, floors, sweep percentages and speed as published on our reviews of each lender, read 7 September 2026
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Important information
CapExpand Ltd (FRN 1060885) is an Appointed Representative of White Rose Finance Group Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 630772). We are a credit broker, not a lender, and we do not provide financial, tax or legal advice. We work with a panel of lenders whose particulars are available on request. If a deal completes the lender pays us a commission, at no cost to you; different lenders pay different amounts under different models, and we will tell you the amount for your deal on request. All lending is subject to status, valuation where applicable and the lender's own checks.
Registered office: Pure Offices, Lake View Drive, Annesley, Nottingham, NG15 0DT. Company No. 14433858.