Asset finance·11 min read·Updated 7 September 2026

Simply Asset Finance review UK 2026: £5,000 to £10m plus, two FRNs and a moved website

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 simply.finance product pages, FAQs and press releases, Companies House records for both authorised entities, and Trustpilot. The 31 December 2025 accounts at Companies House are a scanned image, so the results figures below come from Simply’s own releases.

The short answer

Simply Asset Finance publishes something the rest of this group does not: an actual funding range. Its FAQ says “our minimum loan size is £5000 rising to a maximum loan size of £10m plus”. It also says in writing that it will look at a new-start company, and that being non-bank owned means a business turned down by its bank is “always worth having a conversation”. For a young company with real assets, that combination is rare.

Two practical warnings before anything else. The website has moved: the live site is simply.finance, and simplyassetfinance.co.uk had no DNS record at all on 7 September 2026, so any old link or printed leaflet pointing there is dead. And there are two contracting companies, not one. Simply Asset Finance Operations Limited (10588244, FRN 798195) and SAF1 Limited (10920900, FRN 799893) are both authorised and regulated by the FCA, and which one appears on your agreement can differ.

What it is good at: hire purchase, finance lease and asset equity release across an unusually wide asset list, new and used, with a national direct sales force alongside a broker desk. What it does not do: operating leases, or publishing anything at all about price.

Key facts

Website

simply.finance; simplyassetfinance.co.uk no longer resolves

Contracting entities

Simply Asset Finance Operations Limited (10588244) and SAF1 Limited (10920900)

Regulatory status

Both entities authorised and regulated by the FCA, FRN 798195 and FRN 799893

Founded

April 2017; majority-owned by a Cabot Square Capital fund

Funding range

£5,000 minimum, “rising to a maximum loan size of £10m plus”

Products

Hire purchase, finance leasing, asset equity release, Growth Guarantee Scheme, Simply Stock

New starts

Considered: “Whether you are a new-start company or a company that wishes to release capital”

Assets

New and used; hard and soft, extending to marine, aviation, scaffolding, mining and broadcast

Gross loan book

£543m stated in December 2025; £532m in the FY2025 results released August 2026

FY2025 results

Profit before tax £3.4m on revenue of £66m, up 9%, for the year to 31 December 2025

Rates, fees, deposit and term

Not published

Trustpilot

No confirmed profile; the simply.finance listing is unclaimed with no reviews

Simply’s own pages and press releases, Companies House records for 10588244 and 10920900, and Trustpilot, checked 7 September 2026.

What we can place with Simply Asset Finance

Simply Asset Finance sits on our panel with 2 live products across 1 category. This is what we hold, not what they advertise.

Category	Products	Size	Term	Rate
asset finance	2	£15,000 to £10m	1 month to 7 years	—

Spans across Simply Asset Finance products on our panel, checked September 2026. Shown per category, because one range across different product types would describe something no business can actually have. These are not offers, quotes or rates you will be given, and a dash means we hold no published figure for that field. All lending is subject to status and the lender's own checks. Naming a lender is a fact about our panel: it is not an endorsement of CapExpand by Simply Asset Finance, and implies no affiliation. Panel composition changes.

Two authorised companies, and which one signs

The site-wide footer names both: “Simply Asset Finance Operations Limited with Reg No: 10588244 and SAF1 Limited with Reg. No: 10920900, are both registered in England at Harling House, 47-51 Great Suffolk Street, London, SE1 0BS. Simply Asset Finance Operations Ltd (FRN 798195) and SAF1 Limited (FRN 799893) are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.”

Operations Limited was incorporated on 27 January 2017, trading as HAF Group Operations Limited until April that year, and files under financial leasing. SAF1 Limited followed on 17 August 2017. Both are active and share the Harling House address. Nothing on the site explains when a deal goes to one rather than the other, so the practical step is simple: read the company name on the agreement and use that name for your credit checks, your correspondence and any future dispute. Two FRNs on a footer is not a problem, but assuming there is only one is.

Simply was founded in April 2017 by a team of asset finance specialists and says it is “majority-owned by a Cabot Square Capital fund”. Its funding stack has been built deliberately: a £60m British Business Bank facility in January 2018, a £20m Aldermore block discounting line in March 2018, two further £60m British Business Bank facilities in October 2018 and June 2019, a £60m Citi warehouse in July 2019, an increased British Business Bank ENABLE commitment announced in December 2024 that lets Simply provide more than £175m of finance to smaller businesses, and in April 2026 a wholesale facility from Lombard, part of NatWest Group, to be deployed over three months. A non-bank lender with a clearing bank line behind it is a different proposition from one funded entirely on the wholesale market.

The published range, and who gets a hearing

Simply is the only lender in this group that publishes both ends of its funding range. The answer in its FAQ is direct: “Yes. Typically, our minimum loan size is £5000 rising to a maximum loan size of £10m plus.” That spread covers a single van at one end and a fleet or a production line at the other, and it is genuinely useful when you are deciding where to send a proposal.

On appetite, two published answers matter. New starts: “Yes, we can. Whether you are a new-start company or a company that wishes to release capital from existing owned assets, we are here for you.” Bank declines: “Yes, we can… We are non-bank owned so it is always worth having a conversation.” Set that against Novuna, which requires three years of trading before it will look at anything, and the difference in reach is obvious. Simply also says it deals with companies of all sizes and that many customers are SMEs, and that while each agreement is aligned to an asset, multiple assets can sit on one agreement.

None of that is a promise of approval. “We can consider” is not “we will approve”, and a new-start proposal still has to stand up on the asset, the deposit and the director's record. What the published wording does is tell you the door is open, which saves a wasted application.

What Simply funds, including the things nobody else lists

Three structures: hire purchase, finance leasing and asset equity release. Hire purchase carries “possible tax relief on capital purchases” and “VAT can be reclaimed if you're VAT registered”, with the timing of the VAT payment left unstated. A finance lease means Simply buys the asset and leases it to you, so “you only need a fraction of the total amount up front”. Asset equity release raises capital “by securing a loan against your high value assets, traditionally machinery, equipment or vehicles”, and can be used to fund deposits or to buy assets such as software that would not suit a straight finance agreement. There is no operating lease.

The core sectors are agriculture, bus and coach, construction, engineering, manufacturing, materials handling, packaging, print, transportation and recycling. Then the list widens in a way no other lender in this group matches, taking in marine, aviation, scaffolding, fairground equipment, holiday lodges, mining, broadcast, shop fit-outs and farming. Alongside the core products it lists soft assets, prestige assets, invoice finance, VAT and tax loans, aggregates levy loans, operator licences, refinancing, stock, cash flow, commercial mortgages, trade finance, staged payments and bridging loans. New and used assets are both covered: “flexible finance options can be used for the purchase of assets, both new and used, or to release value from existing assets”.

The soft asset and shop fit-out cover is worth flagging, because Time Finance is due to stop writing new soft asset finance after its takeover completes in the fourth quarter of 2026. Anyone fitting out a shop or a kitchen has fewer places to go than they did a year ago, and Simply is one of the remaining ones.

What it costs, and the clause about withdrawing

Simply publishes no price. Its answer is that “Each application is considered on its own merits and tailored to suit the company's actual requirements”, and there is no rate, no arrangement or documentation fee, no early settlement formula, no deposit percentage, no term range and no representative example anywhere on simply.finance. For a lender that will tell you its minimum and maximum facility, the silence on cost is a curious asymmetry.

One contractual line is published and deserves attention: “Our products offer great benefits in terms of cost efficiency and agreements are fixed and cannot be withdrawn.” Read in context that is a selling point, meaning a facility once agreed cannot be pulled the way an overdraft can. It cuts both ways. A fixed agreement is fixed for you as well, and with no published early settlement terms the cost of getting out early is a question to put in writing before you sign. No personal guarantee wording is published either.

On speed, the only published figure attaches to its vendor platform rather than to ordinary applications: the Simply Connect system and its AI agent, Kara, give “vendor partners with an approved line of credit the ability to draw down funds in as little as eight minutes”. That is a drawdown time on a pre-approved facility, not a decision time on a new deal, and we would not quote it to a client as the latter.

Two loan book figures, and a thin margin bought on purpose

Simply publishes two different sizes for its gross loan book and does not reconcile them. A release dated 11 December 2025 says the gross loan book totals £543m. The FY2025 results release of August 2026, covering the year to 31 December 2025, says the loan book grew to £532m. Both are Simply's own wording. The likeliest explanation is a different measurement date, but the company does not say so, and we report both rather than choosing the larger.

The rest of the FY2025 picture: profit before tax of £3.4m, revenue of £66m up 9%, cumulative origination up 25% to £2.05bn, origination in the year up 31% to more than £400m, a workforce of 196 with front-office headcount up 45%, over 13,000 customers and more than 23,000 agreements, up 23%. Simply attributes the modest profit to deliberate investment. A £3.4m pre-tax profit on a book above £500m is a thin margin, and it reads as a lender buying growth and headcount rather than harvesting the book.

One caveat on provenance. The accounts to 31 December 2025 were filed at Companies House on 13 August 2026 as a 28-page scanned image with no machine-readable figures, so the numbers above come from Simply's own press releases rather than from the filed accounts. Separately, in August 2026 the company reported passing £200m of funding to Scottish businesses across 1,200 businesses and 2,700 deals, with £42m originated in Scotland during 2025 and a team of 11, which is a useful signal if you are north of the border.

How to reach them, and why there is no review score

Simply sells three ways: a broker desk with five named business development managers and published regions, a direct national field sales force with an area map, and a dealer and vendor programme. Brokers submit through Simply Connect. It is a member of the Finance and Leasing Association. Mike Randall is chief executive, Ylva Oertengren co-founder and chief operating officer, Stefan Wolvaardt chief financial officer and John Wiles managing director.

We cannot give you a review score. There is no Simply Asset Finance profile on Trustpilot: the simplyassetfinance.co.uk listing returns a 404, and the simply.finance listing maps to an unclaimed “Simply Finance Group” page with zero reviews that we could not confirm is this company. Quoting a score from a profile whose identity is unverified would be worse than quoting none, so we quote none.

The dead domain is worth repeating, because it catches people out. On 7 September 2026 simplyassetfinance.co.uk had no DNS record whatsoever. Not a redirect, not a holding page, nothing. If you have an old bookmark, an email footer or a printed brochure pointing at it, the live address is simply.finance, and a link that fails to resolve is exactly the sort of thing a fraudster registers next.

Who Simply Asset Finance suits

A good fit if

A new-start company with a real asset to fund, which Simply says in writing it will consider
Deals at either end of the size range, from a £5,000 item to a facility above £10m
Unusual assets such as marine, aviation, scaffolding, holiday lodges, mining and broadcast equipment
Businesses declined by their own bank that want a non-bank underwriter to take a fresh look
Shop fit-outs and soft assets, which fewer lenders will write from the fourth quarter of 2026
Scottish businesses, where Simply has an 11-strong team and reports £200m of funding to date

Look elsewhere if

You want an operating lease with the residual risk sitting with the lender, which Simply does not offer
You need published pricing, deposit or term before applying: none of it is on the site
You may want to settle early and want the cost of that in advance, since no early settlement terms are published
You rely on public reviews to choose a lender, because there is no confirmed Trustpilot profile
You expect one legal entity: an agreement may name Operations Limited or SAF1 Limited

Our verdict

Simply is the lender in this group we reach for when the business is too young or too awkward for a bank. A published £5,000 floor, an appetite for new starts, an asset list that runs from tractors to fairground rides, and asset equity release on kit already owned add up to genuine reach. The Lombard facility signed in April 2026 and the British Business Bank ENABLE money behind it mean the funding is there to support that reach.

The limitations are worth being straight about. There is no confirmed review profile, so you are judging on published terms and on our experience rather than on public feedback. The two loan book figures, £543m and £532m, sit unreconciled in Simply's own releases. And a £3.4m pre-tax profit on a book that size leaves little room, which usually shows up as underwriting discipline rather than generosity. We put younger companies and unusual assets to Simply first, and hard asset deals for established businesses to Close Brothers and Aldermore at the same time. We arrange; the lender decides.

Simply Asset Finance is on our panel. So are the lenders it competes with.

One enquiry and we check your numbers against Simply Asset Finance and the rest of the panel before anything is submitted. We arrange; the lender decides.

Start an enquiry 0333 041 3127

Frequently asked questions

simply.finance. The older simplyassetfinance.co.uk had no DNS record at all on 7 September 2026, so it does not redirect and does not load. Update any saved link, because a lapsed lender domain is exactly the kind of address someone else may register.

From £5,000 to “£10m plus”, per its own FAQ, which makes it the only lender in this group publishing both ends of its range. Multiple assets can sit on a single agreement, although each agreement is normally aligned to a specific asset.

Either Simply Asset Finance Operations Limited, company number 10588244 and FRN 798195, or SAF1 Limited, company number 10920900 and FRN 799893. Both are authorised and regulated by the FCA and registered at Harling House, 47-51 Great Suffolk Street, London SE1 0BS. The site does not explain which entity is used when, so check the name on your paperwork.

Its FAQ says yes: “Whether you are a new-start company or a company that wishes to release capital from existing owned assets, we are here for you.” That is a considerably lower bar than the three years’ trading published by Novuna, though a new start still has to satisfy the underwriter on the asset and the deposit.

None is published. Simply says “Each application is considered on its own merits and tailored to suit the company’s actual requirements”, and no rate, arrangement fee, documentation fee, deposit percentage, term range or representative example appears anywhere on simply.finance.

Yes. Its services page says its finance options “can be used for the purchase of assets, both new and used, or to release value from existing assets”. No maximum asset age is published, which is true of every lender in this group.

Yes, through asset equity release, which raises capital “by securing a loan against your high value assets, traditionally machinery, equipment or vehicles”. Simply also says the proceeds can fund deposits or buy assets such as software that would not suit a conventional finance agreement.

No. It is a non-bank lender founded in April 2017 and majority-owned by a Cabot Square Capital fund, funded through British Business Bank ENABLE facilities, a Citi warehouse line, an Aldermore block discounting facility and, since April 2026, a wholesale facility from Lombard, part of NatWest Group. Its FAQ presents being non-bank owned as the reason a bank decline is still worth discussing.

It reported a gross loan book of £543m in a December 2025 release and £532m in its FY2025 results released in August 2026, and it does not reconcile the two. Cumulative origination has passed £2.05bn, it employs 196 people and it reports over 13,000 customers and more than 23,000 agreements.

It is a thin margin, and it is the lender’s concern rather than a borrower’s, since you owe them. Simply attributes it to deliberate investment, including a 45% increase in front-office headcount, on revenue of £66m up 9%. What it usually means in practice is careful underwriting rather than a retreat.

The only published figure is eight minutes for a vendor partner drawing down against an already approved line of credit through its Simply Connect platform. No decision time or payout time is published for an ordinary new application, so do not read the eight minutes as an approval speed.

There is not a confirmed one. The simplyassetfinance.co.uk profile returns a 404 and the simply.finance address maps to an unclaimed “Simply Finance Group” listing with no reviews that we could not verify is this company. We will not attach an unverified profile to a lender.

Sources and method

Facts on this page were checked against the sources below on 7 September 2026. Where Simply Asset Finance does not publish a figure we say so rather than estimate it.