Salad was today honoured with a King's Award for Enterprise for our outstanding achievement in innovation. We believe we are the first retail lender to achieve this recognition in the 60 year history of the Awards.
Now the UK’s largest personal-lending community development finance institution (CDFI), Salad developed our own technology to improve financial inclusion.
At least one in three UK adults has difficulty accessing mainstream credit, with traditional credit scoring failing those who are credit-invisible or have previously faced financial difficulties, trapping many into expensive debt cycles.
Rather than making a decision based on an individual’s credit score, Salad uses our proprietary AI and machine-learning powered technology, Crouton, to analyse Open Banking transaction data and make fast, responsible affordability decisions without relying on credit reference agency data.
This addresses “fundamental flaws in how the credit scoring system treats millions of people,” says CEO Craig Pennington, “since credit scores can be damaged by life events that happened many years ago.”
Crouton has been trained on six years of real borrower outcomes, covering over five billion transactions from over three million applicants, across 120 spending categories. The technology enables same-day decisions, and funds are then available usually within two hours, providing people with access to fast, fair and affordable credit.
In 2025 we helped more than 90,000 workers in long-term, stable employment (mainly earning up to £36,000 per year) save an average of £497 of interest versus the higher cost alternatives available to them, on an average loan amount of £948.*
Alan Campbell, Founder of Salad said:
“When I founded Salad in 2019, my concern was that credit was difficult for low-income families with poor credit scores to access. The objective was straightforward: to develop a fairer way for families to obtain credit by leveraging Open Banking to accurately assess their true financial situation and determine what constitutes an affordable loan for them.
“Today, we’ve supported over 180,000 customers with loans of over £280m and become one of the UK’s most trusted providers of fair and affordable consumer credit. Receiving a King’s Award is a proud moment for the whole team. It recognises the innovation behind Salad, the support of our stakeholders, the commitment, care and determination that have gone into using technology and data to create a fairer way for low-income families to access affordable credit.”
Craig Pennington, CEO, Salad Finance said:
“As the only consumer lender relying entirely on Open Banking data for decisioning, Salad has developed cutting-edge technology alongside a human touch. Our credit rules combined with Crouton enables us to take a real time assessment of someone's affordability using their bank account data. This technology means we can lend to people that mainstream credit simply rejects, helping people who want and can afford a loan to access fair credit and build their financial resilience.
“This recognition is a testament to the commitment of our entire team, our founder and our investors and partners. Their determination to provide more choice and better options for people underserved by mainstream finance drives everything we do. We know this delivers measurable change in people’s lives and is transforming the credit market. We’re delighted and we thank all of our customers, investors and partners for their trust in us.”
Kate Pender, CEO, Fair4All Finance said:
“Salad provide a vital alternative for workers who might otherwise rely on high cost or harmful credit and it’s great to see their innovative approach recognised with the King’s Award for Enterprise. Through full integration of Open Banking into their underwriting, Salad routinely serve people who are excluded from mainstream credit which has a positive impact on people in financially vulnerable circumstances. We’d love to see more lenders follow Salad’s lead and harness the power of Open Banking, Open Finance and AI to help tackle financial exclusion.”
Janine Hirt, CEO, Innovate Finance, said:
“Salad’s King’s Award for Enterprise is a fantastic recognition of the role UK fintech can play in using innovation to deliver better outcomes for consumers. By harnessing Open Banking, AI and machine learning, Salad is helping to address financial exclusion while demonstrating the strength and impact of the UK’s world-leading fintech ecosystem. Congratulations to the whole Salad team on this outstanding achievement.”
Theodora Hadjimichael, CEO, Responsible Finance, said:
“Salad is a leader in technological innovation, not only among the UK’s CDFIs but in consumer lending to otherwise underserved people. The impact of this innovation is clear in Salad’s lending figures, Trustpilot reviews and the stories from its customers, and the King’s Award is worthy recognition for this impact. My congratulations to Alan, Craig, Tim and all at Salad.”
*Interest saved: calculated by comparison with the higher-cost lenders which are typically the only options available to Salad’s applicants.
