Iwoca’s German lending growth keeps the lender among Sunday Times’ international leaders

Alternative lender Iwoca has been named among the fastest-growing UK businesses for international growth for the second consecutive year.

According to The Sunday Times’ International Track 200, Iwoca is the 20th fastest growing UK business in international sales, with £11.7m in overseas revenue that grew 102.97 per cent over the last two years.

The sales are a sizable chunk of Iwoca’s overall revenues, which stood at £68.5m for the calendar year of 2019.

“Iwoca was born out of the frustration that small businesses were struggling to find the finance they needed to reach their potential,” said the lender’s CEO and co-founder Christoph Rieche.

“I’m proud to say that less than a decade later, we’ve made finance available to more than 50,000 businesses and made more than £2bn available across the UK and Germany.”

While its revenues were smaller, Iwoca’s growth put it ahead of many well-known brands, including Brompton, Five Guys and Brewdog.

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic last year, Iwoca has lent nearly £250m as part of the government’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, and last year made pledges to support hard-hit businesses in the North of England.

This month Iwoca announced an integration with Xero to offer businesses a ‘pay-later’ option when issuing invoices through IwocaPay.

In November 2020, iwoca made IwocaPay free-to-use throughout the second national lockdown after SMEs felt the Covid-19-related pinch once more.