‘My only interest is taking market share from the pillar banks’ – Capitalflow CEO Ronan Horgan on his plans to transform the SME lending landscape

Capitalflow burst onto the scene in 2016 with the aim of disrupting the Irish lending market for SMEs. Last year, the lender, founded by Ronan Horgan and bought by digital bank Bunq in 2021, loaned €360m. Now the plan is to grow that to €600m a year by 2026

'We’ve no plans to offer mortgages. One of the things I learned from the financial crisis is we need to stick to what we know' - Ronan Horgan, CEO Capitalflow. Photo: Mark Condren

Sean Pollock

As Capitalflow boss Ronan Horgan opens the heavy, dark blue wooden doors to his company’s Georgian-era office on Dublin’s Lower Baggot Street, he lets out a laugh that echoes through the empty hallway ahead.

In a sign of the post-Covid times, 55-year-old Horgan, who founded Capitalflow in 2016 aiming to disrupt the SME lending sector, has walked into the office to find all but one of his colleagues based in the Dublin city centre location had opted to work from home.