“Milestones matter,” said Tide CEO and founder George Bevis. “They mark progress and the making of memories, the sort of things we’re here for.
“Today is a big day for us at Tide: a coming of age, though we’ve only been out in the world 15 months. We’re announcing a raft of new features, a new design, and a bigger persona. We’re entering adulthood – in a distinctly youthful way and with plenty more to come.”
From today, digital business bank Tide has been authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as an electronic money institution (EMI), which according to Bevis will give Tide “the option to access the same banking infrastructure as older banks”. Since the bank launched last January, 1 in 12 of all business accounts opened in the UK has been with Tide.
Now managing the accounts of over 30,000 businesses, Tide has today also launched a new vertical card and updated app design, and an integration with online accounting provider FreeAgent, which will automatically upload Tide transaction data into the software for easy expenses tracking.
Finally, Bevis has announced the launch of Team Cards, where businesses can give up to 35 of their colleagues a Tide card and track their spending from within the app, and a new read-only accounting functionality to provide accountants with ease of access for bookkeeping.
Tide’srecent partnership with iwoca for business lending is also proving fruitful, with the fastest rate of service from first click to credit in the user’s account sitting at 6 minutes and 1 second.
We’re promised that multi-currency accounts and international payments are on the way, currently sitting at an alpha-testing stage. This is promising news, given that Revolut’ssuccessful business banking proposition is most likely eating away at that end of the digital market. Elsewhere, despite promises of an early 2018 release and having announced multiple partnerships, Starling Bank has yet to launch its business banking effort.
“We want to liberate you from banking, admin and everything else you’d rather not do while you’re running your business,” said Bevis in a statement. “It’s a frustration we’ve heard from every Tide member we’ve ever spoken to and it’s why we’re helping you “Do less banking”.
“Tide has grown and learned quickly. Thank you for your support so far. Now, we’re ready to go bigger. And keep making good on our promise – to help you do less banking, and more of what you love.”
