Launching and selling Kriya with Anil Stocker (Episode 37)
In this episode, I sit down with Anil Stocker, CEO and founder of Kriya.
Guests
Show notes
In this episode, I sit down with Anil Stocker, CEO and founder of Kriya.
Anil Stocker is a UK fintech entrepreneur and investor, best known as the CEO and co-founder of Kriya, formerly MarketFinance. He founded the company in 2011 to provide UK businesses with frictionless access to B2B payments, credit and embedded finance, and has since overseen the deployment of more than £4 billion in credit through invoice finance, business loans and PayLater solutions.
Under his leadership, Kriya raised over £50 million in equity and more than £500 million in debt from institutions including Barclays UK, Northzone, Mouro Capital, Deutsche Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo and the British Business Bank, before being acquired by Allica Bank in October 2025.
Before founding Kriya, Stocker worked in private equity at Lehman Brothers and later at Cogent Partners, focusing on alternative investments and post-crisis portfolio restructuring. He holds a first-class degree in Economics from the University of Cambridge, is a Forbes 30 Under 30 Finance alumnus, and is an active angel investor across fintech, SaaS and climate-focused startups.
With him, we will discuss the ups and downs of launching a fintech company, but also how tricky it is to sell it to a big player, what is coming after an exit, and the difference between being an investor and a founder.
In this episode
Anil Stocker recounts leaving Lehman Brothers just before its collapse and co-founding Kriya, originally MarketInvoice, as one of London's first fintech lenders. He explains what made London a fintech hub, why fintech lenders ultimately need a bank balance sheet, and what it took to sell Kriya to Allica Bank. He sees banks rebundling into universal apps and embedded finance moving into B2B checkouts.
Chapters
- 0:00Introduction and Kriya
- 1:46Leaving Lehman before the crash
- 3:21From banking to startups
- 7:56A first mover in UK fintech
- 10:14What made London a fintech hub
- 15:29Finding the first customers
- 18:41Seed rounds then and now
- 21:10Low rates and tax incentives
- 24:24Why sell to a bank
- 28:26The Allica Bank deal
- 35:53Trends: rebundling and embedded B2B finance
- 40:07AI at Kriya
Key facts
Anil worked in Lehman Brothers' private equity fund from 2006 to 2008 and left two months before it collapsed.
Anil co-founded Kriya, originally MarketInvoice, as one of London's first fintech lenders, raising a seed round of about 350,000.
Barclays and Santander invested in Kriya's Series B.
Kriya was hit hard when UK interest rates rose about fivefold.
Kriya was sold to Allica Bank about six months after serious talks began; Anil had known Allica's CEO for years.
Kriya remains a brand and division within Allica Bank, and Anil reports to Allica's CEO.
Anil has made about 20 angel investments.
Getting a UK banking licence takes at least three years and costs around 8 million pounds.
London became a fintech hub thanks to a supportive government, open banking and data reforms, tax incentives, low rates and financial-services talent.
Through the cycle, fintech lenders need the stability of a bank balance sheet.
Banks are rebundling into universal apps, and embedded finance will move into B2B checkouts.
AI improves efficiency incrementally but is not a silver bullet.
Questions and answers
Why is it hard to sell a fintech to a bank?
Capital rules, compliance, culture and inflated valuations that don't match the balance sheet.
Why not merge with another fintech?
Fintech lenders share the same structural need for capital, so a bank offered true vertical integration.
How did Kriya start?
Lean and bootstrapped, matching investors seeking yield with small businesses banks weren't serving.