Tide has introduced two business banking solutions in India – Tide Business Account and its RuPay-powered Tide Expense Card
The SMEs who sign up for Tide Business Account will have access to contactless services and can use the free of cost Tide Expense Card to withdraw cash for in-store purchases and others
Tide, which has made its first international foray outside UK in India, aims to onboard half a million SMEs in the country over the next 24 months
UK’s leading SME-focused business financial platform Tide has forayed into the Indian market with the launch of its Android app in the country.
In a statement, the fintech platform said that it has introduced two business banking solutions in India – Tide Business Account and RuPay-powered Tide Expense Card.
Tide aims to onboard half a million SMEs in India over the next 24 months. The fintech company sees the Indian market as a potentially 100 Mn Pound revenue opportunity, and aims to create a sizable business in the country in due course, the statement added.
Tide Business Account and Tide Expense Card, launched in partnership with RBI-regulated PPI issuer Transcorp, will allow SMEs to track spending and business expenses, and also enable transactions at all merchants that accept RuPay.
The SMEs who sign up for Tide Business Account will have access to contactless services and can also use the free of cost Tide Expense Card to withdraw cash for in-store purchases, ecommerce purchases, and other payments, it said.
This is the first international foray by Tide outside the UK.
“India’s 64 Mn SMEs are the backbone of its economy, providing vital services, jobs and growth. We believe there is a vast untapped segment of small businesses in India that hasn’t been formally accounted for,” said Dr. Oliver Prill, CEO of Tide. “We, at Tide, are committed to introducing and including a large segment of this market into the formal economy.”
To reduce the cost of due diligence and prevent illegal activities such as money laundering and financial fraud, Tide said that it would onboard small businesses only on the basis of a full Know Your Customer (KYC) process. This would also help SMEs reap the benefits of using a business account from the very beginning.
“We, at Tide, are working hard to support entrepreneurs in their growth journey and believe we are in a strong position to do exactly that. We are building a product that will not just offer business accounts and related banking services, but a comprehensive set of highly usable administrative solutions,” said Gurjodhpal Singh, CEO of Tide (India).
In fact, the company is currently working to introduce several other features for small businesses across India, including a business savings/current account in partnership with a bank, QR code for payments, bank transfers, invoicing, GST, pay by link and credit services.
Tide aims to ultimately bring the complete richness of the UK platform tailored to the needs of SMEs in India.
The fintech solutions provider, founded in 2015, is backed by investors like SpeedInvest, Tencent, SBI Group, Augmentum, among others.
Tide will compete with SME-focused fintech startups like Kinara Capital, PayU, Aye Finance, and EnKash in India.
India’s growing digital ecosystem, which is reflected in the payments and banking sector as well, is currently enabling several major collaborations between international and domestic players.
As per a recent report, SBM Bank India, which works with several Indian fintech startups like Razorpay, Slice, Open, and ZestMoney, is looking to raise between $50 Mn to $75 Mn to become a leading banking-as-a-service (BaaS) provider in India.
As per an Inc42 report, India’s total fintech market is expected to be a $2.1 Mn opportunity by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 18% between 2022 and 2030.
