Ultimate Finance has delivered a record first half in 2026, reaching a £430m loan book at 30 June 2026, up 21% year-on-year. With strong contributions from every product area, the Group also delivered £153m of new facilities in H1, its highest ever half year total, reinforcing its position as the funding partner of choice for introducers and their clients.
Key highlights for H1 2026 include:
- Record loan book of £430m at 30 June 2026, up 21% year-on-year.
- New facilities reached a record £153m in H1 2026, a new half year high, up 22% on H1 2025.
- At the end of June, the loan book comprised Working Capital £165m, Asset Finance £165m and Bridging Finance £100m.
- Asset Finance: Loan book closed June at £165m, up 30% year-on-year, with £65m of new business delivered in H1, up 31% on H1 2025. June set a new monthly record, with the last four months representing the product’s strongest ever trading period. The maximum Asset Finance facility size was also increased to £3m, helping introducers support SMEs with larger funding needs.
- Working Capital: Loan book total of £165m at the end of June, up 19% year-on-year, with new business facilities of £38m, up 10% on H1 2025. Growth was supported by larger average facility sizes, with the YTD average facility size increasing to £679k, up from c. £500k in H1 2025. Solution enhancements included extending its cashflow loan terms to five years and increasing advances to up to 50% against the combined Invoice Finance funding line.
- Bridging Finance: The business delivered £50m of new business in H1, up 19% on H1 2025, with the loan book closing June at £100m, up 10% year-on-year. It also launched its Semi-Commercial Bridging Loan offering short-term funding of up to £4m for properties combining residential and commercial elements.
The Group has also continued to invest in its people and capability, following planned leadership changes earlier in the year to strengthen product leadership. In H1, Ultimate Finance welcomed 21 new colleagues, including Kareena Talbot as Head of Operations for Bridging Finance, Simon Smith as Regional Director within its Bridging Finance team in Scotland, Lisa Clarke as Working Capital Relationship Manager and Hayley Adcock as Head of Business Support within Asset Finance. The business has also continued to invest in technology advancement and improvements.
CEO Josh Levy said: “We’ve delivered our strongest first half yet, with £153m of new facilities and a record loan book of £430m. That reflects the consistency of our execution, the strength of our introducer partnerships and the progress we’ve made in developing our product propositions.
We’ve continued investing in our product propositions, our people, our technology and our service delivery, so introducers can support more clients with funding that fits.
We’ve also seen that progress recognised externally, with four Finance Connect Summer Awards shortlists and recognition as CEO of the Year. While the CEO of the Year award is presented to me personally, I see it as recognition of our team, our culture and what we have achieved together. We’ve also delivered record client advocacy scores, with an overall NPS of 85, up from 79 last year, and our continued industry leading 5/5 Trustpilot rating based on over 1,000 customer reviews.
Our purpose is simple: to fund the ambitions of UK SMEs and property investors. This performance shows we’re doing that at greater scale, and we enter the second half with a clear ambition, to remain the funding partner of choice for introducers and the businesses they support.”
