Fleximize alternatives: six lenders for the £10,000 floor, the homeowner rule and the rate above 0.9%
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 fleximize.com, iwoca.co.uk, fundingcircle.com, 365finance.co.uk, swishfund.co.uk, cubefunder.com and Companies House; YouLend figures are those on our own YouLend review.
Fleximize is one of the better-run term lenders in the UK market and its numbers say so: £149 million lent in 2025, £688 million cumulative, Best Service from a Business Loan Provider at the 2026 Business Moneyfacts Awards, and LendTech of the Year at the 2026 UK FinTech Awards. If you settle early it recalculates the interest so you pay only for the days you held the money, and it says early repayers save an average of 44% of their total interest. Very few lenders on our panel do that.
The reasons people end up looking elsewhere are almost never about the lender being poor. They are about criteria. A £10,000 floor on the product page, £5,000 a month of turnover, six or twelve months of trading, a personal guarantee on every loan, a possible debenture, and a homeowner rule that quietly caps a large slice of applicants at £20,000. Any one of those can end the conversation before the rate card matters.
This page sets out six lenders on our panel that solve at least one of those problems, and is honest about what each of them gives up in exchange. Figures were read from each lender's own pages on 7 September 2026 and are subject to their own checks.
Why people look past Fleximize
The rate range is wide, and most borrowers do not sit at the bottom of it. The Flexiloan runs 0.9% to 2.9% a month over 12 to 60 months; Flexiloan Lite runs 1.9% to 3.9% a month over 3 to 12 months. The honest anchor for a small borrower is Fleximize's own representative example for loans under £25,000: 41.1% APR representative, based on 34.9% fixed a year on £15,000 over 18 months, monthly repayments of £1,082.20 and £19,479.60 repayable. That is a fair price for unsecured money at that size. It is not 0.9%.
The minimum is inconsistent on Fleximize's own site. The Flexiloan product page says borrowing starts at £10,000; the loan calculator page says you can apply for between £5,000 and £1,000,000. We use the product page figure because that is the one on the page that describes the product, but it means a business wanting £6,000 cannot tell from the website whether it is in scope. iwoca starts at £1,000 and Cubefunder at £5,000 without the ambiguity.
Then the security. Every Flexiloan requires a personal guarantee from at least one director or shareholder, the FAQ says a debenture may also be needed depending on the state of the business, and secured lending is taken by equitable charge. None of that is unusual for unsecured lending to a limited company, but the combination of a guarantee and a possible floating charge is more than a business owner expects when the marketing leads with flexibility. Our personal guarantee guide sets out what signing one actually commits you to.
The rule that ends more applications than anything else is the homeowner one. Fleximize's FAQ states it can only support non-homeowners who have been trading for over 36 months, and then to a maximum of £20,000. A director who rents, running a three-year-old company turning over £40,000 a month, is looking at a fifth of what the calculator implies. Add the structural rules and the shortlist narrows further: limited companies and LLPs, sole traders and partnerships of fewer than four partners only above £25,000, and businesses in Scotland or Northern Ireland restricted to unsecured lending up to £500,000.
Last, the entry criteria and the paperwork. Flexiloan Lite needs six months of trading, the full Flexiloan twelve, and both need £5,000 a month of turnover. Loans are sized at up to four months of revenue. Fleximize asks for three months of business bank statements, the most recent management accounts and a summary of the last twelve months of revenue broken down by month. That is a reasonable pack for a 60-month loan and a heavy one for £15,000 in a hurry.
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 |
| Funding Circle | Fixed-rate business loan | £10,000 to £750,000 | 1 year | None published | Monthly; fixed rate from 6.9% a year plus a one-off completion fee |
| 365 Finance | Merchant cash advance | £10,000 to £500,000 | 6 months | £10,000 a month in card sales | Typically 5% to 15% of card sales |
| YouLend | Embedded merchant cash advance | Up to £2,000,000 (no minimum published) | Not published | Not published | Percentage of sales, single fixed fee |
| Swishfund | Unsecured business loan | £10,000 to £400,000 | One set of filed accounts | £50,000 a year | Weekly or monthly direct debit, 3 to 24 months |
| Cubefunder | Short-term fixed-cost loan | £5,000 to £100,000 | 3 months | £4,000 a month | Fixed deduction every working day (or weekly), 3 to 12 months |
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 answers the floor and the homeowner rule in one go. The Flexi-Loan is a limit of £1,000 to £1,000,000 held for one day to five years, with interest charged per 30 days on the drawn balance from 1.5% a month (its FAQ publishes a range of 1.5% to 5.7%). There is no published minimum trading period and no published minimum turnover, and iwoca states no homeowner condition anywhere on its pages. A tenant director with a decent trading record is assessed on the business.
It is also the better structure for money you might not need for long. Draw £30,000 for seven weeks and you pay seven weeks of interest on £30,000; Fleximize gets you to a similar place through recalculation, but only after you have taken the whole loan. There are no early repayment fees, more than 20% of iwoca customers repay ahead of schedule in their first six months, decisions come inside 24 hours in almost all cases, and the money can arrive within hours. Trustpilot: 4.7 from over 11,000 reviews.
What it does not substitute is the long, large, cheap loan. iwoca's representative example is 3.33% per 30 days (49% APR representative), borrowing beyond twelve months typically adds a fee of 5% for 13 to 24 months and 6% beyond, and all Flexi-Loans carry a variable rate, though iwoca says it cannot change it without the borrower's consent. Limits are sized at roughly one month's revenue or about 20% of annual turnover, against Fleximize's four months, so the number offered is usually smaller. A personal guarantee from at least one director is required, start-ups are capped at £10,000, and the product pages accept limited companies and LLPs only.
Funding Circle
For an established company borrowing six figures over several years, Funding Circle is usually the cheaper answer. Rates start at 6.9% a year fixed, terms run six months to six years, and the ceiling is £750,000 against Fleximize's £500,000 unsecured. No property is required on the standard loan and no homeowner rule is published. It has lent £18 billion to more than 135,000 UK businesses and reported revenue of £204.3m with pre-tax profit of £20.3m for 2025.
Read the completion fee before comparing headline rates. Funding Circle's own calculator shows £100,000 over 24 months carrying a £6,900 completion fee alongside £8,668 of interest, £115,568 repayable at £4,815 a month. It charges no early settlement fee, but the completion fee is not returned if you clear the loan early, which is where Fleximize's recalculation genuinely wins. On the shorter loans of up to twelve months there is no completion fee when you apply directly, and decisions are instant up to £250,000.
What it does not substitute is the young company or the non-limited one. The published minimum is a year of trading, the assessment reads up to eight months of bank statements and the latest full accounts, and from 23 February 2026 Funding Circle lends only to limited companies and LLPs after more than a decade of backing sole traders. Its own pages give three different accounts of when a personal guarantee is needed, and on the sub-24-month Flexible Loan that guarantee is capped at twice the initial loan. Overpayments on a standard contract lower the monthly payment rather than shortening the term.
365 Finance
If most of the money arrives through a card terminal, 365 Finance replaces the fixed monthly instalment with a share of takings. It advances £10,000 to £500,000, repaid at typically 5% to 15% of card sales, and says the advance is usually cleared in five to ten months with no fixed end date and no additional charges if it runs longer. Six months of trading and £10,000 a month on cards is the bar, which is half Fleximize's trading requirement for the full Flexiloan.
No homeowner rule is published, the credit check is a soft search, and 365 approves more than 90% of applications by its own count. It is a direct lender with a £150m Pollen Street Capital facility behind it from February 2025, and it held 4.9 on Trustpilot from 1,135 reviews at our check. For a restaurant or salon whose winter is thin, a repayment that shrinks with the takings does something no term loan can.
What it does not substitute is a cheap long-term loan or a business paid by bank transfer. The cost is one all-inclusive fee that does not fall if you clear it early, which is the opposite of the Penalty-Free Promise. Anything you take outside the card machine is invisible to the sizing, so a wholesaler or professional services firm is measured on a fraction of its revenue. Its unsecured page also asks for twelve months of card statements, which is more paper than Fleximize's three months of bank statements.
YouLend
YouLend is the option for a business that sells through a platform and does not want to assemble a document pack at all. It sits inside Amazon, eBay Seller Capital, Just Eat, Dojo's core business funding, Epos Now, Tide, Lopay, Teya and Worldline, reads the trading data from the platform, and prices a single fixed fee with no interest. Marketing quotes approval in as little as 24 hours and funds within 48 hours of approval. It publishes no minimum advance and no minimum trading period, and it funds up to £2 million.
Scale is a fair reason to take it seriously: FY2025 accounts show revenue of £171.5m and profit of £8.8m, EQT is the ultimate owner, its homepage claims approval for nine in ten applicants and 85% of customers renewing, and Trustpilot showed 4.8 from 12,426 reviews at our check.
What it does not substitute is knowing the price in advance. There is no rate card and no published repayment percentage on youlend.com; the split arrives with the offer. The fee is fixed, so unlike Fleximize there is no saving for repaying early. Its settlement account is a condition of financing, which reroutes processor payouts through a YouLend account until the advance clears, and partner pages put the maximum term at twelve months. That is a very different commitment from a 60-month Flexiloan.
Swishfund
Swishfund publishes no homeowner condition and no property requirement, which makes it a straightforward route for a director who rents. It lends £10,000 to £400,000 over 3 to 24 months to Ltd, PLC and LLP borrowers, publishes its interest at 1.1% to 3% a month depending on loan size, and adds a one-off arrangement fee to the loan (the percentage is not published). Repayment is weekly or monthly by GoCardless direct debit. It has financed more than £350m across 13,000 loans to 7,000 businesses.
The pricing basis needs a translation before you hold it against Fleximize. Swishfund charges interest straight-line on the original amount for the whole term and says so on its own site, noting that halfway through the term you will have repaid half of what you borrowed. A monthly percentage quoted that way is not the same animal as a monthly percentage on a reducing balance, so convert both to a total repayable in pounds before deciding. Early settlement carries no fee, though interest runs to the end of the calendar month you settle in, and bulk overpayments are allowed free of charge.
What it does not substitute is the young business or the long term. Swishfund requires at least one set of annual accounts filed at Companies House and £50,000 of turnover in the past year, so a company nine months old is out even if the revenue is there. The ceiling is 24 months against Fleximize's 60, sole traders are not served, and every personal guarantor has a video call with Swishfund before payout. Its Trustpilot base is thin: the site widget shows 4.3, and the public profile holds 27 to 28 reviews against Fleximize's 1,100-plus.
Cubefunder
Cubefunder takes the business Fleximize cannot: three months of trading, £4,000 a month of revenue, a director whose credit file has a scar, and a need somewhere between £5,000 and £100,000 over 3 to 12 months. Adverse credit does not disqualify an applicant on its published criteria, funds arrive within 48 hours, and its team calls back within 30 minutes of an application. It passed £110 million lent in July 2026 across more than 3,500 businesses.
It is also the only lender here with a published position on running late: no late payment charges, provided the overrun is agreed in advance. And it serves sole traders directly, through a separate regulated loan of £5,000 to £10,000 in England and Wales with a published representative example of £5,000 over 24 months at 30.0% a year fixed, 45.5% APR representative. Fleximize takes sole traders only above £25,000.
What it does not substitute is the cost structure or the size. Pricing is a fixed cost of credit set per case and published nowhere, the FAQ says early settlement carries no additional fee but does not say the fixed cost falls, and repayment is the total cost divided by the working days in the term and collected every working day. The ceiling is £100,000, the company must be registered in England or Wales, accountants, financial services firms and debt collection agencies are excluded, and a personal guarantee is required from each controlling director.
When Fleximize is still the right call
The Penalty-Free Promise is the strongest single reason on this page to stay put. Settle a Flexiloan early and the interest is recalculated to the days you actually held the money; Fleximize puts the average saving for early repayers at 44% of total interest. Of the six alternatives, only iwoca charges strictly for time held. Funding Circle keeps its completion fee, 365 Finance and YouLend keep their fixed fee, Cubefunder says nothing about reducing its fixed cost, and Swishfund runs interest to the end of the settlement month. If there is any chance of clearing the loan early, that difference is usually worth more than a few tenths of a percent on the rate.
The service record supports it. Best Service from a Business Loan Provider at the 2026 Business Moneyfacts Awards, Highly Commended for Best Service from an Alternative Business Funding Provider in the same year, and Best Business Loan Provider for the three years 2023 to 2025. Behind the awards sits £149 million lent in 2025 and £688 million cumulative, no set-up, application or arrangement fees when you apply directly, top-ups and repayment holidays after three successful repayments, and a Loyalty Pledge offering a cheaper rate or £100 cashback if you come back. Decisions land in as little as 24 hours and funds the same day as approval once documents are signed.
A homeowner director of a limited company trading a year or more, turning over £5,000 a month or better, who wants £25,000 to £500,000 over one to five years with the option to clear it early, is the exact borrower Fleximize is built for. Secured lending to £1,000,000 by equitable charge sits behind it, with Fleximize saying there are no LTV limits on terms up to 24 months. Our business loans guide covers how the fixed-repayment route compares with a sales-linked one.
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.
- Fleximize: Flexiloan and Flexiloan Lite (amounts, terms, monthly rates, personal guarantee, top-ups and repayment holidays, same-day funding)
- Fleximize: FAQs (£10,000 to £500,000 unsecured, four months’ revenue sizing, homeowner rule, Scotland and Northern Ireland, Penalty-Free Promise and 44% saving, Loyalty Pledge, documents, sole trader threshold, debenture)
- Fleximize: loan calculator (representative example, £5,000 minimum)
- Fleximize: secured business loans (equitable charge, LTV wording)
- Fleximize: LendTech of the Year 2026 (£149m lent in 2025, £688m cumulative)
- Fleximize: Best Service from a Business Loan Provider, Business Moneyfacts 2026
- Companies House: Fleximize Limited, 07117447
- iwoca: Flexi-Loan (£1,000 to £1,000,000, one day to five years, from 1.5% per 30 days, representative example, longer-term fee, no early repayment fee)
- iwoca: FAQ (1.5% to 5.7% a month, limit sizing, £10,000 start-up cap, unsecured, personal guarantee)
- iwoca support: how loans work and who is eligible (60-month maximum, variable rate)
- Funding Circle: small business loans (amounts, terms, 6.9% floor, completion fee, personal guarantee, documents, 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, guarantee at twice the loan)
- Funding Circle: non-limited loans (sole traders and partnerships withdrawn from 23 February 2026)
- Funding Circle: full year 2025 results (revenue £204.3m, profit before tax £20.3m)
- 365 Finance: merchant cash advance (£10,000 to £500,000, 5% to 15% of card sales, five to ten months, no additional charges if repayment runs long)
- 365 Finance: FAQs (six months trading, £10,000 monthly card sales, soft search, fee structure)
- Swishfund: FAQs (£10,000 to £400,000, 3 to 24 months, 1.1% to 3% a month, straight-line interest, arrangement fee, early settlement, eligibility, speed)
- Swishfund: how it works (GoCardless direct debit, guarantor video call, documents)
- Swishfund: about us (£350m financed, 7,000 businesses, 13,000 loans, Dutch parent)
- Cubefunder: homepage and FAQ (£5,000 to £100,000, 3 to 12 months, £4,000 monthly revenue, working-day deductions, no late payment charges when pre-agreed, excluded sectors, personal guarantee)
- Cubefunder: sole traders (£5,000 to £10,000, representative example, 45.5% APR representative)
- YouLend: ranges, fee structure, settlement account condition, approval and speed claims 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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