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Tide aims to revolutionise SME finance in India, backed by learning & experience from UK



Tide, a prominent business financial platform in the UK, has onboarded 200,000 SMEs in India since it entered the market a year ago. The fintech company serves the financial needs of small businesses, and claims to have a 10% market share among small businesses in the UK. Its rapid growth in India is being fuelled by SMEs looking to digitise their finances, says the company, adding it sees a business opportunity in the large untapped market. The company also plans to launch a credit marketplace platform to help connect small businesses with the right set of lenders, to significantly reduce the time involved in raising loans. In an interaction with ET Online, Gurjodhpal Singh, Chief Executive Officer at Tide (India), elaborates on the company’s USPs and its plans. Edited excerpts:

ET: What does Tide offer to the Indian market?
Gurjodhpal Singh: In the UK, 1 in 10 small businesses use Tide’s platform to meet their financial and admin needs. This approach saves them a lot of time and money. Buoyed by the confidence shown in our technology solutions and the lessons from the UK market, Tide entered India, which is home to 64 million small businesses. Our vision is to bring similar convenience to Indian SMEs. Tide believes there is a vast untapped segment of small businesses in India.

Indian SMEs are the backbone of its economy, providing vital services, jobs and growth. It is important to ensure that small businesses become a part of the formal economy with the requisite guardrails that protect them and offer an enabling environment to do business.ET: How did Tide’s strategy differ in its approach to the Indian market compared to its initial success in the UK?
All our members have been brought onto the platform after a video KYC, keeping in mind a compliance-first approach to offering financial services. Further, to offer the best experience to our members, we adopted a localised approach. Some initiatives include phased rollout where instead of an immediate full-scale launch, we started with one of our core features — business accounts and expense cards. This has helped us build trust and understand the market nuances.
Also, recognising India’s smartphone penetration, we prioritised our mobile app to cater to tech-savvy entrepreneurs and those in remote locations. Our strategic technology partnerships, such as with Transcorp, help us reach more customers and ensure regulatory compliance.To empower women-led small businesses, Tide signed an MoU with WE Hub — Telangana’s state-led incubator for women entrepreneurs. With a commitment to digitise the handloom and handicraft sector in Northeast India, the company entered a MoU with the North Eastern Handicrafts and Handlooms Development Corporation (NEHHDC).
These adaptations, along with cultural sensitivity and understanding of local financial ecosystems, contributed to our steady growth in India. Today, with this approach, we have onboarded over 2 lakh members with full vKYC (video KYC) and we continue our aim to bring convenience and help SMEs get easy access to products like bank accounts, cards, securing working capital, managing cash flow, etc.ET: What obstacles did Tide encounter when implementing vKYC in India?
GS: We are happy to share that within a year we were successful in bringing 200,000-plus members on board, which is nearly half the size of our Tide member base in the UK. During the onboarding process, challenges arose because of limited tech infrastructure, resulting in inconsistent access to stable internet and smartphones across regions. Nuances of financial literacy have also been one learning, where educating users about KYC importance and addressing privacy concerns emerged as crucial factors in promoting smooth adoption.ET: How does Tide’s comprehensive set of solutions translate into time and cost savings for SMEs?
GS: Being highly data driven, Tide conducted several studies on the challenges faced by SMEs and found that their needs are largely universal, with time spent on financial and admin-related activities being a key roadblock to pursuing entrepreneurial dreams.
Most SMEs are open to adopting financial & admin tools for ease of doing business. Working with small businesses every day, we learnt late payments is a potential issue that all businesses big or small face regularly, hence we have developed technology solutions to help SMEs not just track payment but also chase clients for pending invoices, without them being involved. Tide helps SMEs save time (and money) in the running of their businesses by not only offering business accounts and related financial services but also a comprehensive set of highly usable and connected administrative solutions from invoicing to accounting. The Tide Business Account and Tide Expense Card, in partnership with Transcorp, enables small business owners to track spending and business expenses and facilitate transactions at all merchants that accept RuPay payments.

ET: What are the various ways in which Tide addresses the specific needs and challenges of SMEs in the unregistered and unorganised sectors in India?
Tide is committed to help small businesses formalise so that they have equal opportunities to formal channels of credit and other financial services. Some solutions that we offer to address specific challenges include access to financial solutions and expense management; access to formal channels of credit; easy taxation, accounting facilities; and easy invoicing tools.
We have partnerships with key bodies that promote entrepreneurship among small businesses to provide financial education through various workshops and webinars to help them learn about GST compliance, accounting practices, digital financial tools and government schemes, among others.
Tide has also partnered with local organisations to digitise the handloom and handicraft sector in Northeast India. We also launched a small business exchange programme to localise entrepreneurship and foster bonds between small business owners from India and the UK. It will enable 16 smaller entrepreneurs from India and the UK to widen and sharpen their business knowledge, and learn more about cross-border trade and compliances and learn from real-life experiences of other entrepreneurs.
As part of this programme, four Indian and UK small business owners (2 women and 2 men) will get an all-expense paid, one-week trip to the other country. They can exchange knowledge and gain exposure to new markets.

ET: What are Tide’s growth projections for 2024 in the Indian market and the MSME sector?
GS: In India, the company is emphasising on boosting growth and financial inclusion in some of the secluded terrains. Tide is optimistic about growth in 2024 and is all set to focus on expanding its product offerings by introducing invoicing, credit marketplace platform, and payroll management to cater to diverse SME needs. We are at an advanced stage of rolling out a credit marketplace platform for our customers in India and are already in partnership with some lenders. Tide members will soon have access to bill payments, bank transfers and ATM cash withdrawals. We aim to increase the number of our customers to about 500,000 by the end of 2024 from around 200,000 currently.

ET: How might the potential UK-India FTA impact Tide’s operations and its support for women-led enterprises and international trade for Indian SMEs?
GS: Aligned with the vision of the UK-India FTA to strengthen ties and facilitate cross-border trade, Tide has strategically positioned itself to empower women-led SMEs in India. By prioritising support for women-led businesses, Tide’s commitment resonates with the FTA’s overarching goals, potentially unlocking new opportunities for collaboration and funding.
Our mission is to catalyse entrepreneurial growth, forge global networks, and cultivate business partnerships across borders. Through our small business exchange, Tide is committed to recognising the untapped potential within SMEs on an international scale and women-led small businesses would be an integral part of this exercise.



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