Didn't get approved by Funding Circle? You still have options.
Funding Circle publishes its bar, which means a decline is usually traceable to a specific rule rather than a mystery. One year of trading. Limited company or LLP only since February 2026. A personal guarantee on approval, and directors' personal credit assessed alongside the company's. Other lenders on our panel draw those lines in different places, and one enquiry through us is checked against their published criteria before anything is submitted.
No fee to you · Criteria read before anything is submitted · Decisions commonly quoted at 24 to 48 hours
What Funding Circle publishes as its bar
Facts checked 7 September 2026
Criteria, fee and guarantee wording read from Funding Circle's own loan, support and introducer pages.
Funding Circle is unusually open about its bar, which makes a decline easier to read than most. Its small business loans page asks for at least one year of trading, up to eight months of business bank statements and the latest full unabbreviated accounts, and states plainly that a personal guarantee will be required if the loan is approved. The term loan runs £10,000 to £750,000 from 6.9% a year with a one-off completion fee. Miss any one of those and the answer is no, whatever the trading looks like.
One change catches more applicants than any credit issue. From 23 February 2026 Funding Circle lends solely to limited companies and limited liability partnerships, having backed sole traders and partnerships for over a decade; existing sole-trader loans carry on unchanged. If you trade as a sole trader or an ordinary partnership, the decline was a structural rule rather than an assessment of your business.
The other common one is age. A newly incorporated company qualifies only after at least twelve months of trading, which is a hard line rather than a preference, and it catches a great many businesses that are trading perfectly well on eleven months of statements. Its introducer material goes further and asks for two years of trading with a year of filed or formally prepared accounts, so the bar a broker works to can be stricter than the one on the public page.
Credit history is assessed at the director as well as the company. Funding Circle says lenders typically evaluate both the business's creditworthiness and the personal credit of the directors giving the guarantee, and its introducer factsheet flags a director tied to a liquidated business where creditors lost out in the last six years as a challenge. The one piece of good news in all this: for limited companies the hard search only appears if you accept the loan, so applying and reviewing an offer leaves no mark.
Where a term-loan model and a revenue model part company
Trading history length
Term loan models typically need longer trading histories to assess repayment ability. MCA models can work with shorter histories because they assess real-time card turnover instead.
Revenue type and volume
Different models weight revenue differently. Some focus on annual accounts, others on monthly card turnover. Your business may simply suit one model better than another.
Credit profile
Term loan models tend to weight personal credit more heavily. MCA models focus primarily on business performance. Different weighting, different outcomes.
Sector focus
Each lender builds expertise in certain industries. A provider focused on hospitality will assess a restaurant differently from one focused on e-commerce. It's about specialism, not quality.
Cash flow pattern
Businesses with seasonal or variable revenue often suit MCA models better (repayments flex with income). Businesses with steady, predictable revenue may suit term loan models. It depends on your pattern.
Two types of business funding
Neither is better. They're designed for different business types and cash flow patterns.
Term Loan
e.g. Funding Circle, Fleximize
- Fixed monthly repayments
- Suited to steady, predictable cash flow
- Typically requires longer trading history
- Great for planned investment with clear ROI
Merchant Cash Advance
e.g. YouLend, 365 Finance, Capify
- Repayments flex with your revenue
- Suited to seasonal or variable cash flow
- Can work with shorter trading history
- Great for fast, flexible access to capital
Other providers on our panel
Ranges, speeds and review scores below are each lender's own published figures, read on 7 September 2026. They describe the products rather than an offer, and inclusion here is not an endorsement.
| Lender | Published range | Speed they advertise | What it is built for | Trustpilot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| YouLend | Up to £2M | 24 to 48 hours | Repayments track daily card sales; suits established, card-heavy businesses | 4.8/5 (12.4k) |
| 365 Finance | £10K to £500K | 24 to 48 hours | Hospitality focus, named account managers, repayments typically 5% to 15% of card sales | 4.9/5 (1.1k) |
| iwoca | £1K to £1M | 24 hours | Flexi-Loan credit facility, interest only on what you draw | 4.7/5 (11k+) |
| Capify | £10K to £3M | 24 to 48 hours | Fixed-repayment loans, human underwriting that reads past a bumpy credit file | 4.7/5 (725) |
How it works
Tell us where Funding Circle stopped
Two minutes on the amount, the structure, how long you have traded and whether the decline mentioned a reason. The structure alone rules several lenders in or out.
We read it against the criteria
Each lender publishes what it needs. Your case goes only to the ones it already clears, which is what keeps a decline from turning into a run of searches.
You compare the totals
Rate, term, any fee and the total repayable, in pounds. Take one, take none, or sit on it. Nothing is charged to you either way.
Frequently asked questions
Why wasn't my application successful with Funding Circle?▼
Every lender uses a different underwriting model, much like car insurers use different scoring systems for the same driver. Funding Circle's model is built around term loans and weighs factors like trading history length, annual revenue, and personal credit score. If your profile didn't match their specific model, it doesn't mean you're not fundable. It means a different type of funding or provider may be a better fit.
Can I still get funding through another provider?▼
Yes. Merchant cash advance providers like YouLend, 365 Finance, and Capify use completely different models: they focus on card turnover and business performance rather than personal credit history. A business that doesn't fit one model often fits another perfectly. We compare across multiple providers to find the right match.
What is a merchant cash advance and how is it different from a term loan?▼
An MCA gives you a lump sum in exchange for a percentage of future card sales. Repayments flex with your revenue. You pay more when busy and less when quiet. Term loans (like Funding Circle's product) offer fixed monthly repayments. Both are legitimate funding types. The best choice depends on your business model and cash flow pattern.
Will applying to another lender affect my credit score?▼
Most MCA providers use soft credit checks that don't appear on your credit file. Different lenders use different types of credit checks as part of their model. We always confirm the type of check before submitting your application.
How quickly can I get funded through another provider?▼
Most lenders on our panel offer decisions within 24-48 hours. Funds typically arrive 1-3 working days after acceptance.
Can I apply to Funding Circle again in the future?▼
Yes. Funding Circle welcomes reapplications, especially if your circumstances have changed: longer trading history, higher revenue, or improved credit score. In the meantime, a different type of provider on our panel may be a great fit right now.
How many alternatives can CapExpand actually access?▼
Term loans are one shelf of the shop. 55 lenders write unsecured facilities on our panel, 19 write secured, 38 write asset finance and 20 write invoice finance, out of 200+ in total, and every name appears in our lender directory. Your file is read against their published requirements first, so it reaches only the desks that already accept your structure, trading age and credit profile. Checked September 2026; panel composition changes over time.
Where a term-loan decline goes next
A term loan is one product out of eight categories, so the case usually moves sideways rather than stopping. Our unsecured panel holds 55 lenders, out of 200+ in total, checked September 2026, and composition changes over time.
Trading age is where the biggest difference shows. Against Funding Circle's twelve-month minimum, 21 of our unsecured lenders will look at a business under a year old and 5 at one with no trading history at all. On credit, 24 accept defaults or judgments older than 24 months and 8 will consider repeated recent ones. On home ownership, 39 will lend to a director who rents (all checked September 2026).
Size shapes the shortlist as much as criteria do. At £25,000, 36 lenders on the panel have a product covering the amount over terms from 1 to 72 months; at £100,000 it is 45 lenders and terms out to 120 months, with published floors from 4.1% and a typical floor nearer 15.3% (checked September 2026, spans across products rather than offers).
Where the business invoices rather than takes cards, the honest answer is often a different product entirely. 20 lenders on our panel write invoice finance, which advances against a debtor who has already agreed to pay, and 38 write asset finance secured on the kit. We arrange whichever fits and the lender makes its own decision.
Sources
- Funding Circle, small business loans (criteria, fee, personal guarantee)
- Funding Circle, lending to non-limited businesses (23 February 2026 change)
- Funding Circle, will a business loan affect my personal credit
- Funding Circle, introducer factsheet
- iwoca, frequently asked questions
- YouLend, frequently asked questions
Real customers. Real reviews.
Verified on Trustpilot
“We had the money in three days. Alex called me back the same afternoon.”
“Alex was great all the way through explaining how everything worked. Funding was in my bank the same day. It helped me grow my business.”
One application. Multiple lenders.
Your enquiry is read against the published criteria of every lender on the panel and put only to the ones your business already clears. No fee reaches you at any point, and your file goes nowhere until you have said yes.