Nucleus Commercial Finance: loans, terms and eligibility

Nucleus Commercial Finance is a London-based lender offering unsecured business loans. Its site says it was founded in 2011 and gives its address as 120 Regent Street, London. The homepage is addressed to finance brokers and introducers. Nucleus says it is rebuilding its website, so this profile uses its homepage, loans page and three current product factsheets, and leaves out older pages that conflict with them.

Nucleus offers three loans, which its homepage describes as “three focused products with clear criteria”.

Nucleus describes Enable as a higher-risk lending option, triggered automatically when a customer falls outside the standard Nucleus Business Loan criteria, with terms fixed at approval. Credit Builder is for businesses outside the criteria for both of the other loans.

Eligibility depends on the loan. For the Nucleus Business Loan, the factsheet lists:

• a minimum of 1 year’s trading, or 2 years or more for terms over 24 months
• at least one filed account at Companies House
• a personal guarantee from a UK homeowner
• Open Banking, which Nucleus calls an essential requirement
• a maximum loan of 25% of annual turnover

Credit Builder asks for a minimum of 6 months’ trading and a homeowner. Enable also requires Open Banking; its factsheet gives no minimum trading time. The factsheets do not list eligible legal forms, a minimum turnover or excluded sectors.

These are term loans: you borrow a fixed sum and repay it in scheduled instalments, monthly for the Nucleus Business Loan and Enable and weekly for Credit Builder. Nucleus sets an interest rate and an arrangement fee for each product, and both depend on the product and your business, so ask for the total cost of the loan in pounds before you compare it with another offer. The current factsheets do not state how early repayment is treated, so ask before you sign.

We could not find a statement of regulatory status on the Nucleus pages listed in our sources, so this profile does not describe one. Ask Nucleus to confirm its status and check the loan documents before you commit. As general background, most lending to limited companies is not FCA-regulated consumer credit, which means the loan agreement and guarantee set out your rights and obligations.

The main alternatives are another unsecured loan or finance secured on your invoices. Nucleus’s published criteria rely on a homeowner’s guarantee and Open Banking, which will not suit every business.

• iwoca also offers unsecured business loans, as a draw-down facility repaid monthly.
• Kriya provides invoice finance for businesses that invoice other businesses.

See every profile in business lenders compared, and read how to compare business loan lenders. For government-backed options, see our guide to the Growth Guarantee Scheme, which lists where to find the British Business Bank’s accredited lenders.

Capzy is a credit broker, not a lender, and gets paid by the lender. One application lets your business compare options across lenders, so you can weigh rates, fees and guarantee requirements together. Any offer is subject to status and lender criteria. To start, check your funding options.