LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tide, the leading business financial platform, has reached a significant growth milestone. The business now boasts a 10% market share of all UK small businesses with more than 550,000 customers (members).
Tide serves small businesses which don’t have their own finance function, such as sole traders, freelancers and limited companies, part of the UK’s 5.5 million small businesses community1
The need to save time (and money) is a key pain point for small businesses who often find it a challenge to manage their finance and admin. Tide offers business accounts and related banking services, but also a comprehensive set of highly usable and connected admin solutions from invoicing to accounting.
Highlights:
- 1 in 10 UK small businesses on Tide
- 550,000 members across sectors and industries in the UK
- 1500 employees globally, mostly in the UK, India and Bulgaria
Oliver Prill, CEO of Tide, said: “Reaching 10% market share in the UK is a major milestone and testament to the incredible hard work and ambition of our teams, based largely in the UK, India and Bulgaria. Only a few years ago it would have been hard to imagine that such success was possible.
“Our members are at the heart of Tide’s growth. Our focus is to innovate and provide connected products and services for them to save time and money when running their businesses. We head into the rest of 2023 and 2024 with growth and Tide’s company values top of mind, which means putting our members first, working as one team and using data to drive our business forward.”
Internationalisation: rapid growth in India
The past year also saw Tide realise the first steps in its international ambitions, as it officially launched in India in December 2022, expanding throughout 2023. Tide now has more than 150,000 members in India, with Tide India CEO Gurjodhphal Singh leading that expansion.
Acquisition of Funding Options: power of M&A to add to organic growth
Tide acquired UK leading business credit marketplace Funding Options in November 2022, with regulatory approval from the FCA in February 2023. The acquisition fast-tracked the company’s credit offering by providing existing and new members access to over 120 lenders.
Tide remains open to acquisitions.
Product: strong focus on connectivity
As a product-led business, Tide continues to improve its finance and admin offering to help members. The company is rolling out a product roadmap rich in new releases and services.
Recent highlights:
- Tide Accounting: accrual-based accounting embedded in a bank account. Tide is the first fintech in the UK to offer such a service.
- Tide Acquiring: seamlessly integrating Card Readers and Pay-by-Links with the Tide Bank Account and Tide Accounting.
Net Zero: SMEs make up a vital part of the solution to reducing carbon emissions globally
Earlier this year, Tide made three Pledges to Net Zero:
- Pledge 1: Making Tide a fully Net Zero business by durable carbon removals, the first fintech in the world to take this step. Tide plans to soon renew Pledge 1.
- Pledge 2: Tide will reduce 90% of its 2021 emissions per employee by 2030. In doing so, Tide will reduce emissions by 97% on a revenue basis.
- Pledge 3: Tide commits to making Net Zero simpler for its members by developing support for them to get to Net Zero.
In other Net Zero developments: Tide in India partnered with Transcorp to launch the country’s first recycled rPVC RuPay Card. This is part of Tide’s commitment to remove 100% of its emissions with durable carbon removal.
Women in Business: empowering female-led businesses
- UK: In June, Tide announced a new commitment to help 200,000 women launch new businesses by 2027. More than 100,000 women are already on the platform in the UK. The commitment forms part of Tide's efforts to promote gender equality and remove barriers to female entrepreneurship.
- India: Tide is planning to onboard 500,000 women-led businesses in India by 2027.
Senior hires: expanding the leadership to drive scale
Tide has made a number of senior hires this year, as it pursues its strategy of diversifying and internationalising its product and reach. Tide appointed Vinay Ramani as its first Chief Product Officer, Frances Ibe as SVP Experience Foundations and Justin Drees as VP in Business Services. Formerly of Meta, Ramani will drive Tide’s vision for its global product strategy and broaden its small business-focused offering in the UK and India.
Tideans: OneTeam to make it happen
Tide is proud to have grown its employee numbers to 1,500 and to see so many thrive at Tide. In India, Tide was recognised as a great place to work by the Great Place to Work Institute, with more than 83% of employees reporting a positive work experience and company culture.
Notes to Editor:
About Tide:
Founded in 2015 and launched in 2017, Tide is the leading business financial platform in the UK. Tide helps SMEs save time (and money) in the running of their businesses by not only offering business accounts and related banking services, but also a comprehensive set of highly usable and connected administrative solutions from invoicing to accounting. Tide has 550,000 SME members in the UK (10% market share) and more than 150,000 SMEs in India. Tide has also been recognised with the Great Place to Work certification.
Tide has been funded by Anthemis, Apax Digital, Augmentum, Creandum, Goodwater, Jigsaw, Latitude, LocalGlobe, Passion Capital, SBI Group, SpeedInvest and Tencent, amongst others. It employs nearly 1,500 Tideans worldwide. Tide’s long-term ambition is to be the leading business financial platform globally.
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1 UK National Statistics: 5.47 small businesses in the UK, link here