26. iwoca

Founders: Christoph Rieche and James Dear
Founded: October 2011
Website: www.iwoca.co.uk

Since making our list in 2013, the small firm-focused e-commerce loans provider has gone from strength to strength. iwoca recognises the difficulty e-commerce retailers have in obtaining traditional finance without concrete assets to secure finance against, uniquely offering loans based on metrics such as sales performance and customer feedback. Exceeding its revenue projections from last year, the business has taken on approximately 9,000 new customers since March 2012, and this is only set to continue as the number and variety of e-commerce firms continues to proliferate.

iwoca marked a major milestone when it closed a £5m funding round recently with the finance set to fuel a period of unprecedented growth for the business. The founders have ambitious plans to lend to an additional 5,000 small businesses in the UK as well as undertaking a period of aggressive European expansion. Having already launched in Poland, the founders say this is “just the beginning” as they plan to continue to capitalise on an industry that sees year-on-year double digit growth.