Cubefunder alternatives: six lenders for when a fixed cost and a £100,000 ceiling do not fit
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 cubefunder.com, iwoca.co.uk, fleximize.com, swishfund.co.uk, bizcap.co.uk, fundingcircle.com and Companies House; YouLend figures are those on our own YouLend review.
Cubefunder lends £5,000 to £100,000 over 3 to 12 months to limited companies registered in England or Wales, from 3 months of trading and £4,000 a month of revenue, and it does two things almost nobody else in the market does. It publishes no late payment charges, provided the overrun is agreed in advance, and it collects the loan in equal deductions every working day. It prices with a fixed cost of credit, set per case and published nowhere.
People look past it for four reasons: the fixed cost does not fall when you settle early, the £100,000 ceiling is low, three sectors are excluded outright, and a Monday-to-Friday deduction is not everyone's idea of a repayment plan. This page sets out six lenders on our panel that fix at least one of those, and says what each one does not fix. Facts were checked on 7 September 2026 against each lender's own pages.
Our own position, since a comparison ought to have one: the working-day deduction is the term we would want every applicant to model before the no-late-fee line gets their attention. A 12-month loan is collected in roughly 250 pieces, and a business that gets paid on the 30th feels every one of them for four weeks before the invoice money arrives.
Why people look past Cubefunder
The fixed cost with no early-settlement saving. Cubefunder's FAQ says a loan can be settled early at any time with no additional fee, and stops there; it does not say the fixed cost is reduced. In practice a 12-month loan cleared in month five costs what a 12-month loan costs, and the effective annual cost of the same fee over five months is more than double what it is over twelve. iwoca, Fleximize and Funding Circle all charge on the balance you hold for the time you hold it.
The ceiling and the term. Cubefunder's published maximum for a new applicant is £100,000 and the maximum term is 12 months, with longer terms opening once you have history with it. A business that needs £150,000 for a refit, or 36 months to pay for a van fleet, is outside its published scope at the first form field. Every lender below lends more, and four of the six lend for longer.
The sector and geography rules. Cubefunder's FAQ excludes accountants, financial services firms and debt collection agencies, and its published scope is limited companies registered in England or Wales. A Scottish or Northern Irish company with identical trading is outside it. None of the six alternatives publishes a sector exclusion list, and all six lend UK-wide, though Fleximize offers Scotland and Northern Ireland unsecured lending only.
The daily deduction. Cubefunder divides the fixed cost of the loan by the number of working days in the term and takes that sum from the business account every working day, with a weekly schedule available on request. Its own calculator quotes an indicative cost per working day, which tells you how it thinks about the product. Businesses with card takings every day find it painless. Businesses that invoice monthly find the deductions run for weeks before anything comes in.
And a personal guarantee from each controlling director is required for new customers, which Cubefunder now states in its FAQ. That is standard for unsecured lending to limited companies. A company with three directors is still signing three guarantees, and our personal guarantee guide covers what each one commits to.
The alternatives at a glance
| Lender | Product | Range | Min trading | Min turnover | Repayment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| Swishfund | Unsecured business loan | £10,000 to £400,000 | One set of filed accounts | £50,000 a year | Weekly or monthly direct debit |
| Bizcap | Fast and small business loans, secured loans | £5,000 to £500,000 (£1,000,000 secured) | 4 months (5 months secured) | £12,000 a month | Daily or weekly direct debit |
| Funding Circle | Fixed-rate business loan | £10,000 to £750,000 | 1 year | None published | Monthly; fixed rate plus one-off completion fee |
| 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.
iwoca
iwoca is the answer to the fixed-cost problem. The Flexi-Loan is a limit of £1,000 to £1,000,000 held for one day to five years, on which you pay interest per 30 days only on the balance you have drawn, from 1.5% per 30 days (its FAQ gives a range of 1.5% to 5.7% a month). Draw £20,000 for six weeks and you pay six weeks of interest on £20,000. There are no early repayment fees, and iwoca says more than 20% of its customers repay ahead of schedule within their first six months. The ceiling is ten times Cubefunder's and the maximum term is five years.
It lends UK-wide to limited companies and LLPs, publishes no sector exclusions, and states a decision within 24 hours in almost all cases with money in the account within hours of approval. A personal guarantee from at least one director is required; there is no charge over assets. Its Trustpilot profile held 4.7 from over 11,000 reviews at our check.
What it does not substitute is Cubefunder's very low entry bar. 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 around one month's revenue or 20% of annual turnover, so a £4,000-a-month business is looking at a small number. The representative example is 3.33% per 30 days (49% APR representative), borrowing beyond 12 months typically adds a fee of 5% to 6%, and all Flexi-Loans carry a variable rate that iwoca says it cannot change without the borrower's consent. Our iwoca alternatives page covers where it declines.
Fleximize
Fleximize gives a Cubefunder-sized business a monthly repayment, a longer term and a price that falls if it repays early. The Flexiloan Lite, for businesses trading six months or more, runs 3 to 12 months at 1.9% to 3.9% a month; the full Flexiloan, from 12 months of trading, runs 12 to 60 months at 0.9% to 2.9% a month. Unsecured lending reaches £500,000. There are no set-up or arrangement fees when applying directly, and the Penalty-Free Promise recalculates interest on early settlement so the borrower pays only for the days the money was out. Fleximize says early repayers save an average of 44% of their total interest.
Decisions come in as little as 24 hours with same-day funding on approval. 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, based on 34.9% fixed a year on £15,000 over 18 months (£1,082.20 a month, £19,479.60 in total), which is a fairer anchor for a small borrower than the 0.9% floor.
What it does not substitute is the renter and the very young company. Fleximize's FAQ states it can only support non-homeowners trading for over 36 months, and then only to £20,000, so a director with no property gets far less than the calculator suggests. Minimum trading is six months against Cubefunder's three, minimum turnover £5,000 a month against £4,000, and a personal guarantee from at least one director or shareholder is required on every loan. Sole traders and small partnerships can apply only for loans over £25,000.
Swishfund
Swishfund lifts the ceiling to £400,000 and the term to 24 months, collects weekly or monthly by direct debit rather than daily, and publishes its interest: 1.1% to 3% a month depending on loan size, plus a one-off arrangement fee added to the loan (percentage not published). It lends to Ltd, PLC and LLP borrowers anywhere in the UK, funds loans under £75,000 within 24 hours on its conservative claim, and 48 hours to 3 working days above that.
The pricing basis needs translating. Swishfund charges interest straight-line, against the original amount for the whole term, and says so on its site; 1.5% a month straight-line is roughly what 3% a month on a reducing balance would cost. Early settlement carries no fee, with interest running to the end of the calendar month you settle in, so unlike Cubefunder it does reward clearing early. Every personal guarantor has a video call with Swishfund before payout.
What it does not substitute is the three-month-old company. Swishfund requires at least one set of annual accounts filed at Companies House and £50,000 of turnover in the past year, which in practice means a business past its first year and usually well past it. Cubefunder's customer at 3 months and £4,000 a month cannot get through Swishfund's door. Its Trustpilot profile is small, 4.3 from around 27 reviews at our check.
Bizcap
Bizcap is Cubefunder's nearest neighbour: fixed fee, daily or weekly direct debit, 3 to 12 month terms, an appetite for bad credit, and an FAQ that welcomes applicants who already hold funding from another lender. What it adds is size and reach. The small business loan runs to £500,000, the secured loan £30,000 to £1,000,000, and eligibility is a company registration number anywhere in the UK, so a Scottish or Northern Irish company that Cubefunder cannot serve is in scope. Approvals are quoted in as little as 3 hours with same-day funding on the fast product, and an initial offer can be made before a credit check.
The pricing is a factor rate plus an establishment fee, neither published, and Bizcap says it will discount for early settlement without saying by how much, which is a shade better than Cubefunder's silence on the point. Its low-doc cap was lifted to £300,000 in January 2026.
What it does not substitute is the light security and the low floor. Bizcap's FAQ states it will take a charge over the assets of the borrower and its guarantors on any loan above £30,000, where Cubefunder relies on directors' guarantees. Its revenue floor of £12,000 a month is three times Cubefunder's, and it publishes no stance on late payments. Its UK Trustpilot profile is young, about 24 reviews scoring 3.8 at our September 2026 check, and its UK company was incorporated in January 2023.
Funding Circle
Funding Circle is the alternative for the larger, longer, cheaper loan. Its term loan runs £10,000 to £750,000 over 6 months to 6 years at fixed rates from 6.9% a year, plus a one-off completion fee that depends on risk rating and term. The calculator's own default example shows the fee's weight: a £100,000 loan over 24 months carries a £6,900 completion fee and £8,668 of interest, £115,568 in total, at £4,815 a month. There are no early settlement fees and overpayments are allowed, though on a standard contract they reduce the monthly payment rather than shorten the term.
Speed is better than the bank comparison suggests: a 7-minute application, a decision in as little as an hour, and funds typically within 48 hours. A shorter-term loan of up to 12 months carries no completion fee when applied for directly and an instant decision up to £250,000. Funding Circle lends UK-wide to limited companies and LLPs, having withdrawn from sole traders and partnerships on 23 February 2026, and states that a personal guarantee will be required. Its Trustpilot score was 4.6 from around 17,000 reviews at our check.
What it does not substitute is the young or the informal. The published minimum is a year of trading, and the assessment reads business bank statements for up to eight months and the latest full accounts, so a three-month-old company with strong takings and no accounts is not a Funding Circle case. Two gotchas from its own pages: the completion fee is not refunded on early settlement, and on its sub-24-month Flexible Loan the personal guarantee is set at twice the initial loan amount.
YouLend
For a shop, cafe or salon that takes most of its money on cards, YouLend replaces Cubefunder's fixed working-day deduction with a percentage of each day's card sales. Quiet day, smaller repayment. It matches Cubefunder's three-month floor, needs only around £1,500 a month in card sales, and 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 clean open-banking cases can fund the same day.
It also serves sole traders, takes personal guarantees from the directors as standard, and at its best partnership pricing sits at the cheap end of the mainstream advance market. It publishes no rate card.
What it does not substitute is the cost structure or the credit tolerance. YouLend's fee is fixed at the outset exactly as Cubefunder's is, so early repayment saves nothing; the sweep can run up to 30% of daily card sales on a stretched advance; and twenty business days with no card sales is an event of default. YouLend underwrites on director credit as well as takings, and active CCJs or recent defaults usually mean a decline, where Cubefunder says adverse credit does not disqualify. Our MCA cost guide sets out what a fixed fee on an advance really costs.
When Cubefunder is still the right call
The sole-trader loan is the clearest case. Cubefunder runs a separate regulated product for sole traders in England and Wales of £5,000 to £10,000 for any business purpose, and publishes a representative example: £5,000 over 24 months at 30.0% a year fixed, 24 payments of £320.83, £2,700 of interest, £7,700 repayable, 45.5% APR representative. That is not cheap, but it is a published price on a ticket size most lenders on this page will not write for a sole trader at all. Of the six, only YouLend takes sole traders without a minimum, and Fleximize only above £25,000.
The second case is the business that wants a known total cost and may need to come back. Cubefunder's FAQ says it can be a secondary source of finance for a business, and its no-late-charge position, provided the overrun is agreed in advance, is protection nobody else on this page publishes. A three-month-old limited company in England or Wales doing £4,000 a month, with a director whose credit file has a scar, has a short list of doors, and Cubefunder's is one of them. It had lent more than £110 million by July 2026 to over 3,500 businesses, so the model is not a novelty.
What to have in writing before signing: the total fixed cost in pounds, the per-working-day deduction, and whether any of that cost comes back if you settle early. Our cost calculator turns a fixed cost over a short term into an equivalent annual rate, which is the only fair way to hold it against iwoca or Fleximize.
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.
- Cubefunder: homepage (fixed cost of credit, no late payment charges, £4,000 monthly revenue, 3 months trading, 48 hours, sole trader link)
- Cubefunder: FAQ (£5,000 to £100,000, 3 to 12 months, working-day deductions, pre-agreed overruns, early settlement, personal guarantee from each controlling director, excluded sectors, secondary financing)
- Cubefunder: Sole traders (£5,000 to £10,000, England and Wales, representative example)
- Cubefunder: £110 million lent milestone (31 July 2026)
- Companies House: Tallaght Financial Ltd, 09261403
- iwoca: Flexi-Loan (amounts, term, from 1.5% per 30 days, representative example, longer-term fee, early repayment, 20% repay early)
- iwoca: FAQ (1.5% to 5.7% a month, one month’s revenue, £10,000 start-up cap, unsecured)
- iwoca support: how loans work and who is eligible (variable rate, 60-month maximum)
- 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, Scotland and NI, Penalty-Free Promise, 44% average saving, sole trader threshold)
- Fleximize: Loan calculator (representative example for loans under £25,000)
- 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 (GoCardless direct debit, guarantor video call)
- Bizcap: Business loans and FAQs (ranges, criteria, factor rate, charge over assets above £30,000, stacking, credit checks, speed)
- Bizcap: Low-doc loan cap lifted to £300,000 (15 January 2026)
- Funding Circle: Small business loans (amounts, terms, rate floor, completion fee, personal guarantee, documents, trading minimum, speed)
- Funding Circle: Loan calculator (£100,000 over 24 months worked example)
- Funding Circle: Shorter term business loans (no completion fee direct, instant decision to £250,000, personal guarantee at twice the loan)
- Funding Circle: Non-limited loans (sole traders and partnerships withdrawn from 23 February 2026)
- Funding Circle: Business loans support (overpayment mechanics)
- YouLend: ranges, floors, sweep percentage, default terms and speed as published on our own YouLend review, 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.
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