OakNorth company profile: valuation, funding & revenue

This OakNorth company profile covers the company's valuation, revenue, funding rounds, investors and history. OakNorth works in fintech, with a focus on bank lending to mid-market businesses. It was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Every figure links to a public source, and anything the company hasn't disclosed is marked as such.

Revenue

£605.9 million gross revenue (interest and fee income) — Gross revenue, 2025 (company-reported), as of FY2025. Source: OakNorth.

Funding history

OakNorth timeline

Key dates from the sources on this page, oldest first. Metric snapshots are listed after the funding events.

• 2015 — OakNorth is founded in London by Rishi Khosla (CEO) and Joel Perlman.
• 2019 — Equity round: US$440M. Investors: SoftBank Vision Fund, Clermont Group.
• FY2025 — Pre-tax profit: £223 million (2024: £214.8 million).
• FY2025 — Gross originations: £2.8 billion, up 33%; 40% from the United States.
• FY2025 — Adjusted return on equity: 22%.
• FY2025 — Cumulative principal losses: £6.9 million over 10 years, 0.045% of £15.1 billion lent.

Investors

Overview

OakNorth is a bank that lends to growing mid-sized businesses, those too large for small-business lending products but often too small or too unusual for the big banks' corporate teams. It provides term loans, revolving credit facilities, property development finance and acquisition finance, typically from a few million pounds upward. In the UK it also offers savings accounts, which fund much of its lending, and it has expanded rapidly into the United States.

Rishi Khosla, the CEO, and Joel Perlman founded OakNorth in London in 2015. Before that, they had built an analytics and research business and struggled to borrow from banks to grow it, despite being profitable. That experience shaped OakNorth's focus on what it calls the "missing middle" of business lending. The bank's chairman is Lord Adair Turner, former head of the UK's Financial Services Authority.

How OakNorth makes money

OakNorth earns mostly from interest and fees on business loans, funded by retail savings deposits on which it pays lower interest. Its profitability depends on three things: lending at sensible margins, keeping loan losses low, and running efficiently. On all three, its figures are strong. Its 2025 efficiency ratio, operating costs as a share of income, was 26%, which is very low for a bank. It reports an adjusted return on equity of 22%.

A key element is technology. OakNorth built a credit analysis platform that combines a borrower's financial data with industry and economic data to assess risk and monitor loans continuously. It also licensed that platform to other banks, although the lending business is by far the larger part of its operations.

2025 results

For 2025, OakNorth reported:

• Pre-tax profit: £223 million, up from £214.8 million in 2024.
• Gross revenue: £605.9 million in interest and fee income.
• Gross originations: £2.8 billion, up 33%, with 40% coming from the US.
• Total facilities: £7.2 billion, up 18%.
• Adjusted return on equity: 22%.

Over its first ten years, the bank says it lent £15.1 billion with cumulative principal losses of just £6.9 million, or 0.045%. If that record holds through a full credit cycle, it would be exceptional for a business lender.

Note that Wikipedia lists a different 2025 revenue figure (£309.9 million), probably reflecting a different accounting measure such as net income after interest expense. We use the company's stated gross revenue and label it clearly.

Funding history

OakNorth raised equity from investors including Clermont Group, Indiabulls, GIC, Coltrane, EDBI and, in 2019, US$440 million from SoftBank Vision Fund and Clermont Group. Its valuation in those rounds was widely reported in the press but was not formally announced by the bank, so we don't show one here. As a profitable bank, it now generates much of its capital internally from retained earnings rather than needing frequent fundraising.

US expansion

OakNorth started lending in North America in 2023, received authorisation for a representative office in New York in 2024, and has grown quickly since: 40% of its 2025 originations came from US businesses. It has agreed to acquire Community Unity Bank, a small US bank, subject to regulatory approval, which would give it a US banking licence and the ability to take deposits there. It also announced a strategic transaction with Monite, linked to its business banking offering.

Competitive landscape

In the UK, OakNorth competes with large banks' commercial lending teams, challenger banks focused on businesses, and private credit funds, which have grown into major lenders to mid-sized companies. In the US, it faces a crowded market of regional and community banks and private credit providers. Its advantages are speed, flexibility and a record of low losses.

What to watch next

Watch regulatory approval of the Community Unity Bank acquisition, US lending growth, credit losses as interest rates and the economy change, and any IPO plans.

Key facts at a glance

OakNorth is a London bank founded in 2015 by Rishi Khosla and Joel Perlman that lends to mid-sized businesses in the UK and US. It reported £223 million of pre-tax profit and £605.9 million in gross revenue for 2025, with originations up 33% and 40% coming from the US. Cumulative principal losses over its first decade were 0.045% of the £15.1 billion it lent.

Why mid-market lending is underserved

Large banks find it difficult to lend profitably to mid-sized businesses. Each loan requires real analysis, but the amounts are small compared with large corporate deals, so the cost of underwriting eats into returns. Many banks fall back on rigid criteria, such as requiring property as security, which excludes asset-light businesses like software or services companies. Lenders that can assess these businesses efficiently, using data and technology, can win customers and earn good margins. This gap has also driven the growth of private credit funds and venture debt providers.

How OakNorth assesses a loan

Traditional business lending often looks backwards: last year's accounts, the value of property that can be taken as security, and the owner's personal guarantees. OakNorth's approach puts more weight on where a business is heading. Its credit teams build forward-looking models of each borrower's cash flows and test them against scenarios, such as a sharp rise in interest rates, a fall in demand in the borrower's industry, or higher costs. The loan is then structured so the business can keep paying even in those downside cases. After the loan is made, the bank monitors borrowers continuously rather than waiting for annual reviews, so problems can be spotted early.

That approach suits businesses whose value lies in contracts, customers and teams rather than buildings: care homes, hotels, logistics firms, software and service companies, and property developers with clear sales plans. It also explains the bank's emphasis on its very low loss record, which is the clearest evidence that the method works.

Funding the loans: savings deposits

Like other UK challenger banks, OakNorth funds its lending mainly with fixed-term and easy-access savings accounts sold to the public, protected by the UK's deposit guarantee scheme. Savings deposits are a stable and relatively cheap source of funding compared with borrowing in wholesale markets. The bank adjusts its savings rates to attract the deposits it needs to support new lending. For savers, OakNorth is simply one of many banks offering competitive rates; for the bank, these deposits are the raw material of its business model.

Questions to ask a business lender

• How quickly can you give a decision, and what information do you need?
• What security and personal guarantees will you require?
• Which financial covenants apply, and how much headroom will we have?
• What happens if we breach a covenant or need to restructure?
• Can the facility grow with us, for example through an acquisition?

What this means if you're…

A mid-sized business owner: compare bank and private credit options on rates, covenants, speed and flexibility, not just headline price.

A fintech founder: OakNorth shows how specialising in an underserved segment can build a highly profitable bank.

An investor: judge lenders on return on equity, efficiency and credit losses through the cycle.

Latest developments (October 2026)

OakNorth reported 2025 pre-tax profit of about £223 million, with gross loan originations up 33% to £2.8 billion and the US accounting for about 40% of new lending, according to Crowdfund Insider. Its agreement to buy Michigan-based Community Unity Bank has faced regulatory delays. OakNorth has not disclosed a recent valuation.

Sources

Every figure on this page comes from the public sources below. Where sources disagreed, we used the company's own announcement or a primary news report. Private-company data changes; check the date beside each figure.

1. OakNorth
2. Wikipedia