Tide reaches 85,000 members and 1.5% market share

Tide, the leading digital challenger in SME banking has today reached another key milestone, with 85,000 small and medium sized businesses now using the banking platform.

This brings Tide within touching distance of The Co-Operative Bank’s 86,000 SME customers, meaning the digital challenger is quickly gaining ground on the so-called “traditional challengers” (CYBG, Metro Bank, TSB and Co-Op) in the business banking market.*

In addition to the quick growth in volume of customers, Tide’s members are regularly using the platform. Over 11 million transactions have now been made since the January 2017 launch, with an annual transaction volume of almost £6bn.

This strong growth follows the £60m grant received from the RBS Alternative Remedies Package in February 2019 by ClearBank, in partnership with Tide. This funding will give Tide the opportunity to add additional time-saving products for small businesses to the platform, and a real chance to break the current oligopoly, giving entrepreneurs and small business owners a genuine alternative to the high costs and inflexibility of the high street banks.

Oliver Prill, CEO of Tide, said: “We have had an extremely strong start to 2019 and are delighted with the growth the business is experiencing. People who work for themselves come to us because they want a dedicated and focused partner that will help them grow their business, and save them time on their banking and admin.

“Tide is already the leading digital business banking player. Our vision is to become the number one business banking challenger in the UK, and as part of our commitment to the Banking Competition Remedies (BCR) Alternative Remedies Package we have stated we will secure 8% of the business banking market by the end of 2023. We are pleased to be in a position whereby we only need to continue our current rate of growth to reach this target.”

Tide offers its growing army of members business banking without monthly, weekly or annual, or card usage fees, and with low transaction fees. Unlike traditional banks, a new Tide account can be up and running in five minutes rather than what can be weeks on the high street. As well as offering usual current account features, Tide offers additional services to ease business admin, including full integration into accounting systems, such as Xero’s new bank feed.