Funding Circle alternatives: the UK competitors compared

YouLend, 365 Finance, iwoca, Capify and Fleximize all sit alongside Funding Circle on our panel. Funding Circle is a fixed-term loan over six months to six years; the others repay in different ways. YouLend and 365 Finance collect a share of daily card takings, iwoca is a facility you draw and redraw over one day to five years, Capify sells loans repaid in fixed daily or weekly instalments over 3 to 24 months, and Fleximize’s Flexiloan is a 12 to 60 month loan. Which shape fits is a question of how the money comes in and how long it will be out.

For a fixed-term business loan the lenders most often weighed against Funding Circle are Fleximize (the Flexiloan, 12 to 60 months) and Capify (daily or weekly instalments over 3 to 24 months). iwoca competes with a drawdown facility rather than a term loan, and YouLend and 365 Finance compete for the same businesses with a merchant cash advance repaid from card takings. All five sit on our panel with Funding Circle, and one enquiry through CapExpand is matched against each of their published criteria at once, so a business outside one lender's criteria is still seen by the others.

Funding Circle lends £10,000 to £750,000 over six months to six years, repaid in fixed monthly instalments, and its published floors are one year of trading, a UK base and a limited company or LLP (fundingcircle.com, 8 September 2026). A personal guarantee is taken on every loan, the assessment reads up to eight months of bank statements and the latest full accounts, and it has lent £18 billion to more than 135,000 UK businesses. Whether that shape suits a given business depends on its trading age and how long it will hold the money.

A term loan repays in fixed monthly instalments over an agreed term, six months to six years at Funding Circle, and suits a business with steady income. A merchant cash advance repays as a share of daily card takings, so the amount collected moves with the till: 365 Finance says its advances usually clear in five to ten months with no fixed end date. They are designed for different income patterns rather than ranked against each other.

Funding Circle's published floor is one year, so a younger business is reading other lenders' criteria. 365 Finance asks for six months of trading and monthly card takings of £10,000, Fleximize's Flexiloan Lite takes six months, iwoca caps start-ups at a £10,000 limit, and YouLend sizes an advance from platform sales history. Across the panel, 21 of our 55 unsecured lenders will consider a company trading under a year at September 2026. That is the shortlist a young business is choosing from.

Enquiring does not affect your credit score. A lender searches your file once you go ahead with an application to it and with your consent; Funding Circle says it checks the business and its guarantor at that point. One enquiry through us is matched against published criteria first, so an application is only made where the case fits.

One enquiry is matched against the published criteria of every lender on this page, including Funding Circle, and you choose between the offers that come back. We arrange the introductions and each lender decides its own case. Our service is free to you; we are paid by the lender you proceed with.

Our unsecured panel currently holds 55 lenders, part of 200+ lenders across all products, and the full roster is published on our lender directory at capexpand.com/business-funding/lenders. One enquiry is checked against the lot; we approach only the lenders whose criteria you fit. Figures checked September 2026 and panel composition changes over time.

Its application pages ask for statements rather than a live connection. On 8 September 2026 the small business loans page listed business bank statements for up to the last eight months plus the latest full unabbreviated accounts, and the business loans page asked for up to six months of statements showing account name, sort code, account number and every daily transaction. A Direct Debit is set up before funds are released. For a top-up, the support pages say most customers are not asked for statements at all.

Structure and term. Funding Circle is a fixed-term loan of £10,000 to £750,000 over six months to six years in fixed monthly instalments, for limited companies and LLPs trading a year or more. iwoca’s Flexi-Loan is a limit of £1,000 to £1,000,000 held for one day to five years, drawn and redrawn while the facility is open, for limited companies and LLPs with start-ups capped at £10,000 (iwoca.co.uk, 8 September 2026). Both take a personal guarantee, and our Funding Circle vs iwoca comparison sets the two structures side by side.