Private equity giant Warburg Pincus is circling iwoca, the fast-growing lender to small British businesses, in a deal that could value the fintech at around £1 billion.

Sky News reported on Thursday 12 November that Warburg Pincus is among the parties in talks about buying iwoca. An auction of the lender has been under way for several weeks and is being run by bankers at Qatalyst Partners.

iwoca was founded by Christoph Rieche, its chief executive, and James Dear. It lends to tens of thousands of small and medium-sized firms in the UK and Germany, and last year provided £1.5 billion in loans to small businesses, a rise of more than 50% on the previous year.

The company is backed by investors including Augmentum Fintech and CommerzBank's CommerzVentures. Warburg Pincus declined to comment on the talks.

Sale process has been building for months

Talk of a sale is not new. In July 2026 iwoca closed £250 million in new debt funding to expand its lending to small and medium-sized firms, at a time when reports of a possible sale were already circulating. Sky News reported earlier this year that iwoca had hired Qatalyst Partners to explore a sale, with a valuation of more than £1 billion suggested.

iwoca, short for instant working capital, offers short-term finance to small firms that often struggle to borrow from high-street banks. That part of the market has grown quickly as traditional lenders have pulled back from smaller business customers, and several fast-growing non-bank lenders have attracted takeover interest as a result.

Warburg Pincus has a long record in banking and financial services. A takeover would give the private equity firm a foothold in a fast-growing corner of British business lending, with a lender that already serves a large base of small firms and has been expanding its loan book sharply.

No deal is certain

There is no guarantee that the talks will lead to a deal. The auction is still running, other bidders may be involved, and neither iwoca nor Warburg Pincus has confirmed the discussions in public. No price has been agreed, and the process could still end without a sale.

For iwoca's small-business customers, a change of owner would not in itself change existing loan terms. But a new owner with deeper pockets could fund faster growth in lending, while a private equity buyer would typically look for a return on its investment within a few years, which could mean further changes down the line.

The outcome of the auction will be watched closely across the UK fintech sector. A deal at around £1 billion would rank among the largest UK fintech takeovers of the year and would underline how much value investors now place on lenders serving the small firms that larger banks have left behind.

Sources: Sky News, FinTech Futures