Tide dials-up Indian ambition with £100m investment

Small business banking provider Tide is reiterating its commitment to the Indian market, with a pledge to create over 1,000 new jobs and invest £100m in the country by 2026.

In January CEO Oliver Prill declared that India’s “vast SME population” and “entrepreneurial spirit” had made it the fintech’s top choice for international expansion.

Tide already has some 200 employees in India, mostly based at its Hyderabad tech centre, another of the reasons why the country was chosen for expansion.

“We at Tide are committed to serving India’s 64m, 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,” said Prill.

“Through our investment in the market, Tide looks to contribute to both the countries’ vision of developing a roadmap to a free trade agreement with a target of £100bn by 2030.”

New roles being created as part of the just-announced hiring surge will include product and software development, marketing, risk and compliance, and member support.

As well as aiming to support SMEs, Prill says Tide will also focus on the unregistered and unorganised business sector in India, helping these businesses to digitise and bringing them into the mainstream finance sector.

On the ground Tide is working with local bank RBL Bank to provide bank accounts for its members, in the same way that it partnered with ClearBank in the UK.

Tide’s roll-out in the market does seem to be progressing slightly slower than originally anticipated, in January the fintech said it was planning a full launch later in 2021, however it now says its launch is due “early next year”.