British business bank Allica Bank has acquired embedded lending provider Kriya.
Allica Bank received its banking licence in 2019 and is offering business accounts, savings products and financing options to SMEs in the UK. Allica Bank has grown significantly over the last few years, achieving profitability for the first time in 2023 (Allica Bank) and surpassing £3 billion in lending and £4 billion in deposits in 2024 (Allica Bank).
Kriya, formerly known as MarketInvoice and MarketFinance, was launched in 2011 and offers a B2B payment and financing solution for platforms. While integrating Kriya, platforms can offer B2B BNPL, invoice financing and working capital loans to their customers. As previously covered, Kriya has partnered with Stripe in 2024 for its B2B BNPL product in the UK (EFR) and with Motoring and Cycling Merchant Halfor for purchase financing (EFR).
This acquisition adds another example to the trend of banks (even though it’s a neobank) buying embedded finance providers. For me, the strategic play here is pretty straightforward: Allica Bank is betting on embedded finance as a new customer acquisition channel.
As Allica continues to scale, acquiring customers directly becomes increasingly challenging and expensive. Kriya changes that dynamic. Through Kriya's platform integrations, Allica Bank can now reach businesses that are already using these platforms but aren't yet banking with Allica. The beauty of this approach is that it starts with a financing relationship (e.g., B2B BNPL, invoice financing, or working capital loans), which naturally creates an entry point. Once a business has its first positive experience with financing through Kriya (powered by Allica), there's a great potential to convert them into full banking customers over time.
