Business funding in London
Can London businesses get funding quickly?
London is where the property side of our panel earns its keep. Alongside advances and term loans across £5,000 to £25 million, we place commercial mortgages with 45 lenders and bridging with 53, at commercial rates spanning 4.6% to 11.4% a year at 70% loan to value (checked September 2026). Those are panel spans, not quotes.
What we see from London businesses
London enquiries split roughly between hospitality and retail on one side and ecommerce on the other. Restaurants and bars around Soho and Shoreditch take nearly everything by card, which is exactly the profile YouLend and 365 Finance price best. A venue putting £40k+ a month through the terminal will usually pull in more than one competitive offer, and repayments that flex with takings suit the way footfall swings between a wet Tuesday and a Saturday night.
The London-specific problem is margin. Rent in Zone 1 eats a share of revenue that a lender in Leeds never has to think about, so we stress test the repayment against your actual margin before we submit anything. In our experience a deal that looks fine on revenue alone can be uncomfortable once a Soho landlord has taken their cut, and it's better to size down than refinance in month four.
Retail is a steady second. Picture the typical shape of it: a fashion boutique needing stock money for the new season's collection when a traditional bank loan would take six to eight weeks, too late for the seasonal buying window, so the funding has to complete before the season starts. That pattern, stock money on a deadline, is probably the most common London retail enquiry we get, from Camden market traders up to multi-site shops.
If you invoice clients rather than take cards, which covers a lot of London's agencies and professional services firms, skip the MCA conversation. iwoca or Funding Circle term loans fit that shape and we'll route you there on day one rather than waste a week.
Which funding type fits which London business?
| Funding type | Best for | Typical range | Speed (lender-advertised) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merchant cash advance | Soho, Shoreditch and West End hospitality on high card turnover | £5k to £500k | 24 to 72 hours |
| Commercial mortgage | Buying or refinancing offices, retail units and mixed-use premises | £25,000 to £50m | 4 to 12 weeks |
| Bridging finance | Auction purchases and deals with a fixed completion deadline | £5,000 to £300m | 5 to 21 days |
Amounts are the span of product limits across our panel rather than a typical deal size, and the property timelines depend on valuation and legals as much as on the lender. Every case is priced on its own merits.
Where we work in Greater London
Everything happens by phone and email, so there's no difference between a Shoreditch bar and a suburban trade counter as far as the process goes. We work with businesses across Westminster, Camden, Islington, Hackney and the rest of the London boroughs, inside and outside the North Circular.
We work with UK limited companies, LLPs, sole traders and partnerships.
Why London cases split down the middle
Half the London enquiries we take are trading businesses with a terminal, and the arithmetic there is the same as anywhere: at £100,000 unsecured, 45 panel lenders cover the amount over terms to 120 months, with published rates from 4.1% to 70.8% and a median floor of 15.3% (checked September 2026).
The other half is property, and the numbers there behave differently. Bridging on our panel prices from 0.6% to 2% a month at 65% loan to value, median 0.9%, with arrangement fees of 1% to 4% (checked September 2026). London deals are not cheaper than the rest of the country. There are simply more lenders willing to look, which is a different advantage and often the more useful one when a completion date is fixed.
Panel counts were checked September 2026 extract, available products only. They describe the panel, not an offer.
The panel behind this page
We can place unsecured business loans cases with 55 lenders, and 200+ lenders across all products on our panel. That range matters more than any single rate: the lender that suits a five-year-old limited company with clean accounts is rarely the one that suits a seasonal business or a director with a past blip, and a broker with a shallow panel has to force your case into whichever box it holds.
Names you may recognise on the panel
Examples from our panel as at September 2026, not an endorsement of any lender and not the full list. We check criteria first and put your case only to lenders whose requirements you fit. The full panel by product is in our lender directory, and how we choose is set out on our how we work page.
London funding questions
Can I get business funding in London with bad credit?
Often, yes, and the tolerance differs sharply by product. 24 of our 55 unsecured lenders accept minor adverse older than 24 months, while on the property side 42 of the 53 bridging lenders take slight adverse and 19 will look at heavy adverse (checked September 2026). Security changes what a lender can forgive.
How fast can a London business get funded?
For an advance, lenders advertise same-day decisions and funding within a few days of acceptance. A commercial mortgage or a bridge runs to weeks, because a valuation and legals sit in the middle. We tell you which clock you are on before you start, not after. Clean cases with tidy bank statements and consistent card takings move fastest.
Does London rent affect how much I can borrow?
Not directly. Lenders look at revenue, not your outgoings, so a Soho restaurant taking £60k a month by card is assessed on that £60k. High rent does squeeze affordability though, so we sanity check repayments against your real margins before submitting.
Which lenders fund London hospitality businesses?
High card turnover is what the advance lenders are built for, and central London hospitality generally has it in volume. The complication here is rent: a venue can look strong on turnover and thin on margin, so we sanity check the repayment against real margins rather than the headline figure.
Is this service free?
Yes. The lender pays us on completion and your cost is the same either way. We will tell you the amount for your deal if you ask. Funding is subject to status and the lender's own checks.
Do you work with sole traders in London?
Yes. We work with sole traders and partnerships as well as limited companies and LLPs for business loans, asset finance, invoice finance and merchant cash advances. Property-secured lending (commercial mortgages, bridging, development and buy-to-let) is for limited companies and LLPs only. Lender criteria differ by structure, so tell us how you trade and we will go to the right part of the panel.
See what your business could access
Two minutes, and enquiring does not affect your credit score. We tell you which lenders fit your figures and, just as usefully, which ones will not waste your week.
Start the formCapExpand 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. We do not provide financial advice.