Swishfund alternatives: six lenders for when straight-line interest and a filed set of accounts do not work
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 swishfund.co.uk, iwoca.co.uk, cubefunder.com, bizcap.co.uk, fleximize.com, 365finance.co.uk and Companies House; YouLend figures are those on our own YouLend review.
Swishfund does something most short-term lenders will not: it publishes the interest. Loans of £10,000 to £400,000 run 3 to 24 months at 1.1% to 3% a month depending on size, collected weekly or monthly by GoCardless direct debit, with a one-off arrangement fee added to the loan. It has financed more than £350 million across 13,000 loans to 7,000 businesses since the UK arm opened in 2018, under a Dutch parent, Swishfund B.V.
Where it gets awkward is the basis of that interest and the door you have to walk through to reach it. Swishfund charges straight-line, on the original amount, for the whole term, and it needs a set of accounts already filed at Companies House. Both are stated plainly on its own site, and both change who this lender is for.
Our position, since a comparison should have one: we place fewer businesses at Swishfund than its speed claim would suggest, because the filed-accounts rule removes most of the companies that need money in a hurry. Below are six lenders on our panel that fix at least one thing about it, with what each of them costs you in return.
Why people look past Swishfund
Start with the cost, because the number looks smaller than it is. Swishfund charges interest straight-line rather than on a reducing balance and explains the effect on its own interest page: by the halfway point of the term you have repaid half of what you borrowed, but the interest is still calculated on the full original amount. Quoting 1.5% a month on that basis produces a total cost close to what a lender charging on a reducing balance would need roughly double the monthly rate to reach. Add a one-off arrangement fee whose percentage is not published anywhere, and the only fair comparison is total repayable in pounds against total repayable in pounds.
Then the door. Swishfund requires at least one set of annual accounts filed at Companies House, with the profit and loss and notes, plus £50,000 of turnover in the past year and twelve months of business bank transactions through Open Banking or CSV. In practice that means a company past its first year end and usually well past it. A ten-month-old company doing £15,000 a month cannot apply, however good the trading looks.
The structure rules cut again. The FAQ restricts lending to limited companies registered at Companies House with a business bank account, and the loans page names Ltd, PLC or LLP. Sole traders are not served at all. Every personal guarantor also has a video call with Swishfund before payout, which we think is a good thing (somebody actually looks at the person signing) but it adds a step, and on a three-director company it adds three.
The minimum term is three months, which matters if the money is bridging a single VAT quarter. Early settlement carries no fee, but interest runs to the end of the calendar month in which you settle, so clearing the loan on the 2nd costs the same as clearing it on the 29th. Bulk overpayments are allowed with no penalty.
Two smaller things. The review base is thin: the site widget shows 4.3 and the public Trustpilot profile holds 27 to 28 reviews, against iwoca's 11,000-plus and Fleximize's 1,100-plus, so there is not much evidence either way about how Swishfund behaves when something goes wrong. And the site cannot agree on how fast it is. The FAQ says funds within a couple of hours of acceptance for loans under £75,000 and within 48 hours above that; the loans page says 24 hours; the how-it-works page says up to three working days above £75,000; the banner says apply in five minutes while the FAQ says three. We quote the conservative version to clients: 24 hours under £75,000, 48 hours to three working days above.
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 |
| 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 |
| Bizcap | Fast and small business loans, secured loans, line of credit | £5,000 to £500,000 (£30,000 to £1,000,000 secured) | 4 months (5 months secured, 9 months line of credit) | £12,000 a month (£20,000 for the line of credit) | Daily or weekly direct debit, 3 to 12 months |
| Fleximize | Flexiloan and Flexiloan Lite term loans | £10,000 to £500,000 unsecured (£1,000,000 secured) | 6 months (Lite) or 12 months | £5,000 a month | Monthly; interest recalculated on early settlement |
| YouLend | Embedded merchant cash advance | Up to £2,000,000 (no minimum published) | Not published | Not published | Percentage of sales, single fixed 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 |
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 is the direct answer to straight-line interest. The Flexi-Loan is a limit of £1,000 to £1,000,000 held for one day to five years, and interest is charged per 30 days on the balance you have actually drawn, from 1.5% a month with a published range of 1.5% to 5.7%. Pay half of it back and you pay interest on half. There are no early repayment fees at all, and iwoca says more than 20% of its customers repay ahead of schedule in their first six months.
It also has no accounts requirement. iwoca publishes no minimum trading period and no minimum turnover, and lends across ages and industries, which puts a company in its first year back in the conversation. Decisions come inside 24 hours in almost all cases, money can land within hours, and its record payout is 2 minutes 37 seconds. It lent £1.3 billion across 58,000 loans in 2025, up 60% on 2024, and holds 4.7 on Trustpilot from over 11,000 reviews.
What it does not substitute is the size of the offer or the flat structure. iwoca sizes limits at roughly one month's revenue or about 20% of annual turnover, so a business borrowing £400,000 from Swishfund is not automatically an iwoca case at the same number, and start-ups are capped at £10,000. Its 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 the rate is variable, though iwoca says it cannot change it without the borrower's consent. Limited companies and LLPs only; a personal guarantee from at least one director is required.
Cubefunder
Cubefunder takes the applicant Swishfund turns away at the first question. Three months of trading and £4,000 a month of revenue is the whole entry test for a limited company registered in England or Wales; no filed accounts are needed, and adverse credit does not disqualify an applicant on its published criteria. It lends £5,000 to £100,000 over 3 to 12 months, funds within 48 hours, and calls back within 30 minutes of an application. It passed £110 million lent in July 2026 across more than 3,500 businesses.
It also publishes something nobody else here does: no late payment charges, provided the overrun is agreed in advance. And it runs a separate regulated sole trader loan of £5,000 to £10,000 in England and Wales, with a published example of £5,000 over 24 months at 30.0% a year fixed, 24 payments of £320.83, £7,700 repayable, 45.5% APR representative. Swishfund has no route for a sole trader at all.
What it does not substitute is the size, the geography or the published rate. The ceiling is £100,000 against Swishfund's £400,000 and the term stops at twelve months for new applicants. The company must be registered in England or Wales, so a Scottish or Northern Irish borrower is out. Pricing is a fixed cost of credit set per case and published nowhere, and while early settlement carries no additional fee, nothing on the site says the fixed cost falls. Accountants, financial services firms and debt collection agencies are excluded, and a personal guarantee is needed from each controlling director.
Bizcap
Bizcap is the speed answer, and it means it. Approvals are quoted in as little as three hours with funding the same day on the fast product, an initial offer can be made before any credit check is run, and the hard search only happens if you proceed. Four months of trading and £12,000 a month of revenue gets you to £500,000 on the small business loan; the secured loan runs £30,000 to £1,000,000 from five months of trading with funds from 48 hours. The low-documentation cap was lifted to £300,000 in January 2026.
It is also the most tolerant lender here on credit history and existing debt. Its pages accept applicants with a poor score and existing facilities, and its FAQ welcomes businesses that did not get as much as they hoped from another lender, which is an explicit statement that it will sit behind someone else. Bizcap says it will not penalise early settlement and will give a discount for it, though it does not say how much.
What it does not substitute is the published price or the light security. Pricing is a fixed fee over the term plus an establishment fee, neither published, where Swishfund at least tells you 1.1% to 3% a month. Above £30,000 Bizcap takes a charge over the assets of the borrower and its guarantors under the loan agreement. Repayment is daily or weekly rather than monthly. Its UK company was only incorporated in January 2023, traded as Finbiz Funding Limited until July 2025, and its UK Trustpilot profile is young at about 3.8 from 24 reviews. Its FCA registration (994366) is for anti-money-laundering purposes only.
Fleximize
Fleximize is the closest thing on this page to Swishfund done on a reducing balance. Flexiloan Lite runs 3 to 12 months at 1.9% to 3.9% a month from six months of trading; the full Flexiloan runs 12 to 60 months at 0.9% to 2.9% a month from twelve months. Six months of trading is a much lower bar than a filed set of accounts, and £5,000 a month of turnover is well under Swishfund's £50,000 a year threshold when annualised.
The Penalty-Free Promise is the part that matters against straight-line interest: settle early and Fleximize recalculates so you pay interest only for the days you held the loan, with early repayers saving an average of 44% of their total interest by its own figure. There are no set-up, application or arrangement fees when you apply directly, which removes the unpublished fee problem entirely. Funds can arrive the same day as approval once documents are signed, and terms run to five years where Swishfund stops at two.
What it does not substitute is the borrower without property behind them. Fleximize can only support non-homeowners trading over 36 months and then to a maximum of £20,000, which is a harder rule than anything Swishfund publishes. Every loan needs a personal guarantee from a director or shareholder, a debenture may be required, and secured lending uses an equitable charge. The floor is £10,000 on the product page (the calculator says £5,000), sole traders can apply only above £25,000, and businesses in Scotland or Northern Ireland get unsecured lending only.
YouLend
For a business selling through a platform, YouLend removes the document pack and the accounts requirement together. It sits inside Amazon, eBay Seller Capital, Just Eat, Dojo's core business funding, Epos Now, Tide, Lopay, Teya and Worldline, reads trading data from the platform itself, and prices a single fixed fee rather than interest. Approval is quoted in as little as 24 hours with funds within 48 hours of approval, and there is no minimum advance published. FY2025 accounts show revenue of £171.5m and profit of £8.8m, with EQT as ultimate owner; Trustpilot showed 4.8 from 12,426 reviews at our check.
The repayment shape is the real difference. A percentage of each day's sales falls when trade falls, where a Swishfund direct debit is the same amount whatever the week did.
What it does not substitute is knowing the price before you apply, or keeping your payment plumbing as it is. YouLend publishes no rate card and no repayment percentage on its own site, so the split arrives with the offer. The fee is fixed, so early repayment saves nothing, and its settlement account is a condition of financing, meaning processor payouts route through a YouLend account until the advance clears. Partner pages put the maximum term at twelve months.
365 Finance
365 Finance is where a card-heavy business goes for the same money without a filed set of accounts. Six months of trading and £10,000 a month of card sales buys an advance of £10,000 to £500,000, repaid at typically 5% to 15% of takings, usually cleared in five to ten months. It publishes the repayment band before you apply, which puts it in the same small group as Swishfund on transparency, and it charges one all-inclusive cost with no application, admin or late fees.
The line worth reading twice is that there are no additional charges if the advance takes longer to repay. A slow quarter stretches the payback instead of adding cost, which is the opposite of interest running to the end of a calendar month. 365 approves more than 90% of applications on its own count, runs a soft search, is funded by a £150m Pollen Street Capital facility from February 2025, and held 4.9 on Trustpilot from 1,135 reviews at our check.
What it does not substitute is the business paid by bank transfer or the borrower who wants a term loan. Everything is sized on card takings, so a wholesaler, a contractor or a B2B agency is measured on a fraction of its revenue and often on nothing at all. The floor is £10,000, its unsecured page asks for twelve months of card statements, and the all-inclusive cost does not fall if you clear the advance early.
When Swishfund is still the right call
Speed on a clean file is the case for Swishfund. Its FAQ says loans up to £75,000 can be in the bank within a couple of hours of acceptance, and 48 hours for £75,000 to £400,000. If your company has a filed set of accounts, £50,000-plus of turnover, twelve months of readable bank data and a director happy to take a video call, the process is short and there is nothing to chase. On a Tuesday morning with a Friday deadline, that combination beats a cheaper lender who wants management accounts.
The published terms also stack up better than the market average in three ways. The interest range is public (1.1% to 3% a month by loan size), collection is weekly or monthly rather than daily, and there is no early settlement fee, with bulk overpayments allowed free of charge. Add Ltd, PLC and LLP eligibility, a Customer Service Excellence accreditation carrying three Compliance Plus certificates, and £350 million financed since the UK arm opened, and it is a serious lender rather than a bridge to somewhere.
Before signing, get the total repayable in pounds, the arrangement fee in pounds, and the figure for settling in month six. Those three numbers make a straight-line quote comparable with iwoca or Fleximize, and our guide to factor rates and APR explains why the monthly percentage on its own tells you very little.
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.
- Swishfund: FAQs (£10,000 to £400,000, 3 to 24 months, 1.1% to 3% a month, arrangement fee, early settlement to end of calendar month, eligibility, filed accounts, £50,000 turnover, speed)
- Swishfund: interest on a business loan (straight-line basis, half repaid at the halfway point)
- Swishfund: how it works (GoCardless direct debit, guarantor video call, documents, three working days above £75,000)
- Swishfund: business loans (Ltd, PLC or LLP, 24-hour funding claim)
- Swishfund: about us (£350m financed, 7,000 businesses, 13,000 loans, Swishfund B.V. parent, Customer Service Excellence)
- FCA: FOI11195 annex A (Swishfund Ltd, 812144, registered under the money laundering regulations)
- Companies House: Swishfund Ltd, 11180668
- 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, 2 minutes 37 seconds)
- iwoca: FAQ (1.5% to 5.7% a month, limit sizing, £10,000 start-up cap, personal guarantee, no published minimums)
- iwoca closes £250m funding structure with a leading UK bank (27 July 2026; £1.3bn across 58,000 loans in 2025)
- Cubefunder: FAQ (£5,000 to £100,000, 3 to 12 months, working-day deductions, pre-agreed overruns, personal guarantee from each controlling director, excluded sectors)
- Cubefunder: sole traders (£5,000 to £10,000, representative example, 45.5% APR representative)
- Cubefunder: £110 million lent milestone (31 July 2026)
- Bizcap: FAQs (3 to 12 month terms, fixed fee and establishment fee, charge over assets above £30,000, credit checks, early settlement discount, funding alongside another lender)
- Bizcap: fast business loans and small business loans (£5,000 to £500,000, four months trading, £12,000 monthly revenue, three-hour approvals)
- Bizcap: secured business loans (£30,000 to £1,000,000, five months trading, 48-hour funding)
- Bizcap: low-doc loan cap lifted to £300,000 (15 January 2026)
- Companies House: Bizcap Limited, 14591050 (incorporated 13 January 2023 as Finbiz Funding Limited)
- Fleximize: Flexiloan and Flexiloan Lite (amounts, terms, monthly rates, personal guarantee, same-day funding)
- Fleximize: FAQs (homeowner rule, unsecured cap, Penalty-Free Promise and 44% saving, Scotland and Northern Ireland, sole trader threshold, debenture, no direct fees)
- 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, no application, admin or late fees)
- 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.
Registered office: Pure Offices, Lake View Drive, Annesley, Nottingham, NG15 0DT. Company No. 14433858.