UK banking platform Tide kickstarted its international expansion strategy in India with a commitment to invest £100m and create 1000 jobs over the next five years.
Tide has formed a partnership with RBL Bank, which will provide the bank account infrastructure for its Indian operations. Users will be able to open current and savings accounts and access a set of ancillary administrative services.
Tide, which has recruited 350,000 SMEs and opened over 410,000 business accounts since its launch in the UK in 2017, already has 200 employees working at its technology centre in Hyderabad.
The new jobs will be across a wide variety of roles, including product development, software development, marketing, risk & compliance and member support.
In addition to business accounts and related banking services, Tide will offer a comprehensive set of highly usable administrative solutions. Apart from supporting the SME sector, Tide will also focus on serving the unregistered and unorganised sector, helping small businesses digitise and bring them into the mainstream.
India is the first market that it has chosen to expand into and there will be other countries where the company will be taking its services.
Tide India CEO Gurjodhpal Singh said the company would look to contribute to India and UK’s vision in developing a roadmap to a free trade agreement with a target of £100bn by 2030.
Commenting on its international expansion, Tide CEO Oliver Prill said, “Tide recognises the ambitions of both the UK and Indian Governments to build India-UK bilateral relationships with an enhanced economic partnership and sees SMEs as being crucial to economic growth in both nations.
“We at Tide are committed to serving India’s 64 million, and growing, SME sector, helping to unleash the true potential of Indian small businesses by helping them to save time (and money) on their financial admin.”
Congratulating Tide on the achievement, UK Minister for Investment Gerry Grimstone said, “I am pleased that Tide’s innovative business financial platform, part of the UK’s world-leading FinTech ecosystem, is embracing the opportunities in India’s dynamic and growing SME market. The UK and India have ambitious plans to deepen our trade and investment partnership and bring benefits to both economies, and this is a great example of what we can do together.”
