Swishfund vs Bizcap: the two fast lenders, and what the speed costs

Who Swishfund actually is

Swishfund is a Dutch lender with a British subsidiary. The parent, Swishfund B.V., was founded in the Netherlands in 2016 by Pieter Schoen, a Dutch Dragons' Den investor; the UK company, Swishfund Ltd, was incorporated in January 2018 and its registered office is care of Azets in Peterborough. On its own figures it has financed over £350 million across 13,000-plus loans to 7,000-plus businesses, and it holds a Customer Service Excellence accreditation. It runs weekdays 8am to 6pm. There is one product: an unsecured business loan of £10,000 to £400,000 over 3 to 24 months.

Two things make Swishfund unusual in this lane, and both are to its credit. It publishes its rate range, 1.1% to 3% a month depending on the loan amount, which Bizcap and most fixed-fee lenders do not. And it tells you how that interest is calculated: straight-line, on the original amount for the whole term, rather than on the reducing balance. Its own explanation is that halfway through the term you will have repaid half of what you borrowed. What it does not publish is the arrangement fee, which is a percentage added to the loan and covers, in its words, marketing and operational costs including broker fees.

The process is more thorough than the speed claims suggest. Swishfund wants a full set of filed accounts with the profit and loss and the notes, a recent bank statement, twelve months of transactions by open banking or CSV, and the names, addresses and dates of birth of directors and shareholders. Before payout, each personal guarantor does a video call with Swishfund. Repayments run weekly or monthly by GoCardless direct debit. Our Swishfund review goes further into the straight-line arithmetic.

Who Bizcap actually is

Bizcap was founded in Australia in 2019 and now operates in New Zealand, the UK, Singapore and Europe, with over £3 billion funded globally across more than 100,000 small business loans on its homepage figures (an older page on the same site still says £900 million and 42,000, so read the numbers as direction rather than audit). The UK company is young: incorporated in January 2023 as Finbiz Funding Limited, renamed Bizcap Limited in July 2025, trading in the UK since April 2024. Its Companies House filings list three individuals with significant control, US nationals rather than an Australian parent company, and its footer says its Financial Conduct Authority registration is for anti-money-laundering purposes only.

The product range is wide for a lender this size. Fast Business Loans of £5,000 to £150,000 from four months of trading and £12,000 of monthly revenue, with approval in as little as three hours and funding the same day. Small Business Loans to £500,000 on the same criteria. Secured loans of £30,000 to £1,000,000 from five months of trading, funds in as little as 48 hours. A Line of Credit to £500,000 that wants nine months of trading and £20,000 a month, charging interest only on what is drawn. And bridging of £150,000 to £1,000,000 for up to 12 weeks, which requires property ownership and a clear exit. In December 2025 Bizcap announced a £1 million ceiling across its term loan and line of credit products, and in January 2026 it lifted its low-document cap to £300,000.

What it does not publish is any price. Bizcap describes its pricing as a fixed fee applied over the term, set by creditworthiness, duration and what the money is for, plus an establishment fee agreed upfront. It will make an initial offer without running a credit check, accepts bad credit and existing loans, and says outright that businesses which got less than they hoped for elsewhere are welcome to apply for more. Repayments are daily or weekly direct debits, excluding weekends and holidays. Our Bizcap review has the full list.

What you actually pay

Swishfund's 1.1% a month reads cheaply until you apply the straight-line rule. On a reducing-balance loan each repayment shrinks the balance and the interest charged on it; straight-line charges the monthly rate against the original sum for every month of the term, even though your average outstanding balance is roughly half of it. The practical effect is that 1.1% straight-line costs about what a 2% reducing-balance rate would over a year, and 3% straight-line costs about what 5% to 6% would. That is the honest comparison against iwoca's 1.5% per 30 days on the drawn balance, and it is why we call Swishfund the dearer product even though its headline number is smaller. Then the arrangement fee is added to the loan, at a percentage Swishfund does not publish, so the number to ask for on any Swishfund offer is the fee in pounds.

Bizcap's cost is a factor rate: a fixed fee over the term that sets the total repayable on day one, plus an establishment fee. The mechanics matter more than any rate we could guess at. Because the total is fixed, the effective annual cost depends entirely on how long you take: the same fee over six months costs twice the annual rate of that fee over twelve. Because it is collected daily on working days, a £60,000 total repayable over six months is in the region of £470 leaving the account every working day, whether or not the till was busy. And because the fee is fixed, settling early saves nothing unless the discount Bizcap says it offers is agreed in writing before you draw down. Our cost calculator converts any factor-rate offer into pounds and an equivalent annual cost.

One more line each. Swishfund charges no early settlement fee but interest runs to the end of the calendar month you settle in, so a settlement on the 2nd costs the same as one on the 28th. Bizcap takes a charge over the assets of the borrower and its guarantors on any loan above £30,000, which is not a cost in pounds but is the kind of thing that turns up when you next try to borrow. Our factor rate versus APR page is the place to start if the two pricing models still look alike.

Who gets approved

Swishfund's gate is the filed accounts. It lends only to companies registered at Companies House (Ltd, Plc or LLP) with a business bank account, turnover of at least £50,000 in the past year, and at least one set of annual accounts filed. A first set of accounts is normally filed towards the end of a company's second year, so in practice Swishfund is a lender for businesses well past their first birthday. It publishes no adverse-credit policy. It does publish a list of 50-plus accepted purposes under the heading of any legitimate business activity, and no exclusion list.

Bizcap's gate is about as low as UK criteria go: an active Company Registration Number, four months of trading and £12,000 of monthly revenue for the loans, stepping up to five months for a secured loan and to nine months and £20,000 a month for the line of credit. Bad credit is accepted in so many words, an initial offer comes without a credit check, and stacking on top of an existing lender is stated as welcome. That openness is genuine and it is priced in. A business that qualifies for Swishfund almost always qualifies for Bizcap; the reverse is not true.

Security is where the two flip. Swishfund names its guarantor requirement (usually a director and shareholder) and adds the video-call step, which is a check on the person as much as on the paperwork. Bizcap says personal guarantees may be taken and, on anything over £30,000, takes a charge over the assets of the borrower and the guarantors. A fast loan wearing an unsecured label can end up better secured than a slower one. Our personal guarantee guide covers what each commitment means for a director.

How fast the money lands

Bizcap's whole pitch is speed, and its published numbers are the fastest of any lender on our panel: approval in as little as three hours and funding the same day on the fast loan, 24 to 48 hours on the rest, 72 hours on bridging. The low-document route up to £300,000 is what makes those numbers possible, because there is less to read.

Swishfund's numbers are fast on paper and inconsistent across its own site. Its FAQ says funds within a couple of hours of acceptance for loans under £75,000 and within 48 hours above that; its homepage banner says money within 24 hours; its how-it-works page says up to three working days for the larger loans. The conservative reading is 24 hours for under £75,000 and 48 hours to three working days above it, and that is before the video call with each guarantor, which has to be scheduled. In the cases we arrange, Bizcap is the one that can genuinely fund inside a day; Swishfund is a two-to-three-day lender that occasionally surprises.

The bit nobody mentions

Bizcap's UK Trustpilot profile shows 3.8 from 24 reviews. That is a thin base, and we would say the same of a 4.9 from 24. Twenty-four reviews for a lender claiming 300% year-on-year UK growth tells you the profile is young, not that the lender is bad or good, and the snippet also shows Bizcap replying to 28% of its negative reviews. Bizcap's site quotes 4.8 and 4.9 in two places, which are group-level figures from other profiles. Swishfund's 4.3 from 27 or 28 reviews is barely wider. Neither number should carry weight in a decision, which is a strange thing to write on a page that quotes both, and true.

Swishfund's quiet line is the end-of-month interest rule. No early settlement fee is real, and so is paying interest to the end of the calendar month you settle in, so the saving from clearing a loan on the 3rd is smaller than the arithmetic suggests. Bizcap's quiet line is the asset charge above £30,000, which sits alongside a personal guarantee and can complicate a later asset-finance or overdraft application that wants a first charge.

Worked examples

Only Swishfund publishes a rate, so only Swishfund gets a worked example. Bizcap's fee is set per case and appears only in its offer; rather than invent a factor rate, the mechanics are described in the cost section above. Swishfund's arrangement fee is not published either, so it is shown as a line to fill in, not a number.

Who fits where

Concrete cases against each lender's published criteria. The likely fit is where the case usually lands in the deals we arrange; the lender still makes its own decision.

General information on how the lenders differ, not a recommendation. We arrange finance; the lender decides, and you choose.