Tide

Overview
Tide is a London-based financial platform for small and medium-sized businesses. Its core product is a mobile business current account, opened by scanning an ID, around which Tide offers payments, invoicing, expense management, payroll, accounting tools, business registrations, insurance and access to credit through partner lenders. The company was registered as Tide Platform Limited in May 2015 by former banker George Bevis and launched in the United Kingdom in 2017. Tide is not a bank: it is an FCA-authorised electronic money institution, and its accounts are provided with ClearBank. Led by Chief Executive Officer Oliver Prill since 2018, Tide reports about 1.8 million members across the United Kingdom, India, Germany and France, and reached a USD 1.5 billion valuation in September 2025.

Why this entity matters
Tide matters for three reasons. First, it has built one of the largest small-business customer bases of any European fintech, reporting about 14 percent of the UK small-business market, which makes it a reference point for anyone analysing how SMEs adopt digital financial services. Second, its international path is unusual: rather than expanding across Europe first, Tide made India its second market and now reports more than one million members there, before entering Germany in May 2024 and France in September 2025. Third, its German launch puts it directly into the market Startuprad.io covers, where small businesses have traditionally banked with savings banks and cooperative banks and where foreign fintechs face specific expectations on trust, deposit protection and German-language service.

Company history and product
Tide Platform Limited was registered with Companies House on 18 May 2015 by George Bevis. It received FCA permission in February 2016 and authorisation as an electronic money institution in January 2018, according to the FCA register as cited by Wikipedia. A seed round in 2016 came from Passion Capital, LocalGlobe and angel investors; a GBP 11 million Series A in 2017 was led by Anthemis and Creandum; Augmentum Fintech joined in 2018; and in October 2019 SBI Group and Augmentum Fintech led a GBP 44.1 million Series B. George Bevis stepped back as Chief Executive Officer in 2018, and Oliver Prill, formerly Chief Operating Officer of Kreditech, took over. Sir Donald Brydon became the first independent Chair in 2020. The product range grew from accounts and invoicing to credit through partner lenders, cash deposits via PayPoint and the Post Office, insurance and accounting integrations. Tide entered India, opened Germany in May 2024 and France in September 2025. On 22 September 2025 TPG, through The Rise Funds, invested more than USD 120 million in primary and secondary shares at a USD 1.5 billion valuation, with existing investor Apax Digital Funds supporting the round; Tech.eu reported that Tide had been valued at USD 650 million in 2021. The company reports more than 2,500 employees and engineering centres in London, Sofia, Hyderabad and Lithuania.

Role in the startup and technology landscape of Germany, Austria and Switzerland
Tide's German business, launched in May 2024, offers a business current account with instant-access savings, expense management, invoicing and numberless cards, with deposit protection, according to the company. Its Partner Credit Services lending marketplace in Germany marked its first anniversary in 2025, and the company has said it plans to widen its German business-management offer. For founders and freelancers in Germany, Tide is one of several foreign-founded providers competing with established banks for small-business accounts. For Startuprad.io's readers, it is also a live case study of a UK fintech entering the German market: how it adapts its product, how it handles deposit protection and regulation, and how it builds trust with German small-business owners.

Selected relationships and affiliations
Founder: George Bevis. Chief Executive Officer: Oliver Prill (since 2018). Chief Product Officer: Vinay Ramani (per company letter). Account provider: ClearBank. Card issuing: Tide or PrePay Technologies under a Mastercard licence. Investors (selection): Passion Capital; LocalGlobe; Anthemis; Creandum; Augmentum Fintech; SBI Group; Apax Digital Funds; TPG (The Rise Funds). Markets: United Kingdom; India; Germany; France. Startuprad.io: cooperation partner.

Startuprad.io relevance
Tide has cooperated with Startuprad.io. It is listed among Startuprad.io's selected cooperations at https://www.startuprad.io/become-a-partner and among the organisations Startuprad.io has worked with at https://www.startuprad.io/aboutus/recognition . The entity links into Startuprad.io's coverage of fintech, small-business finance and how foreign companies enter the German market.

Tide appears in the following Startuprad.io editorial piece.

Startuprad.io Turns 12: What Twelve Years of Startup Conversations Taught Us
Published: 31 October 2026
Last updated: 31 October 2026
Coverage type: Anniversary feature (cooperation acknowledgement)
https://www.startuprad.io/post/startuprad-io-turns-12-what-twelve-years-of-startup-conversations-taught-us

Public source context
This profile draws on TPG's press release on its 2025 investment https://www.tpg.com/news-and-insights/tide-secures-strategic-investment-from-leading-global-investor-tpg , the Chief Executive Officer's 2025 letter on Tide's own blog https://www.tide.co/blog/tide-update/major-milestones-in-2025-and-a-look-ahead-to-2026-a-letter-from-our-ceo/ (members, markets, employees and regulatory disclosures), Tech.eu's report on the 2025 round https://tech.eu/2025/09/22/uk-business-bank-tide-attains-unicorn-status-with-120-funding-round/ , the Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tide_(financial_service) (founding, early funding and leadership history), Startuprad.io's partner list https://www.startuprad.io/become-a-partner and recognition page https://www.startuprad.io/aboutus/recognition , and Startuprad.io's coverage archive listed above.

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Canonical record: https://www.startuprad.io/entities/tide