UK based FinTech Tidewhich serves small and medium enterprises (SMEs), is set to enter the Indian market with an investment commitment of $100 million, CNBCTV18 reported. Over 200 staff members are currently working for the company in India.
According to the report, Tide said it chose India as its top overseas market due to the significant business opportunities the location offers. The company seeks to onboard 25,000 SMEs nationwide in 2021, as it aims to serve around 2 million SMEs in the next two years.
“[SMBs are] a crucial segment for economic growth, but it is also quite underserved in India. Our goal is to consolidate services into a single platform and provide working capital liquidity for [SMBs]», CEO of Tide India Gurjodhpal Singh said, according to the report.
Tide reportedly intends to conquer the Indian market with services designed to help SMEs go digital.
“We seek to work with startups that serve [SMBs] already,” Singh said, according to the report. “The idea is to work with them and bring their products to our platforms.”
Tide, which was established in 2015, provides business accounts, among other services. In the UK, FinTech has over 350,000 SMB users.
PYMNTS reported in January that Tide had revealed plans for an experimental rollout in India in Q1 2021 with a wider rollout to follow later.
In May, PYMNTS reported that Tide was launching a new avenue to help SMBs get payments on time through its Tide Invoice Assistant offering.
“The Tide Invoice Assistant tackles a number of issues faced by small businesses – the biggest being automating manual, time-consuming processes and ensuring they get paid quickly,” said Alastair Travisvice president of business services at Tide, at the time.
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