Digital business banking platform Tide has completed its acquisition of Funding Options after the company received the approval of the FCA. Following this acquisition, Funding Option, a UK marketplace for business finance, will continue to operate as a separate brand from Tide.

The work underway will merge Tide’s existing credit intermediation business with Funding Options. According to the press release, this part of the deal is being led and controlled by Simon Cureton, the Funding Options CEO, which is currently called Tide Partner Credit Services. The addition of Funding Option’s services will provide Tide with more than 475,000 members, which represents approximately 9% of the UK’s market share of small-and-medium enterprises.

This will offer the new customers access to more credit options, and, over time, will allow them to use the Funding Options panel of multiple partners to create a new marketplace for SME credit in the UK. Tide’s development strategy The announcement of the acquisition was made in November of 2022. The CEO of Tide stated that a factor in the decision for this acquisition was the fact that securing finance is often an issue for SMEs.

With Funding Options, the companies will be ensured that there are no confusing products, complex application forms, and even no long waits. Furthermore, officials also disclosed that the company was considering further acquisitions to accelerate and improve the growth process, while adding to the services and products portfolio. Following the announcement, Tide expanded in India by launching the Tide application, as well as two business solutions: a business account and an expense card.

This indicated the company’s first market outside the UK, as Tide aimed to onboard half a million India-based SMEs within the next 2 years. The first launched feature was the Tide Business Account. When the SMEs signed up for it, they were provided with access to contactless services, while having the option to use the Tide Expense Card free of cost to withdraw cash and carry out in-store purchases, which include contactless tap and pay, as well as ecommerce purchases, in addition to other types of payments and transaction methods.

Both the Tide Business Account and the RuPay-powered Tide Expense Card enable the tracking of spending and business expenses. Furthermore, this allows transactions at all RuPay-accepting traders, providing businesses with the possibility to save time and money. The company was also working on introducing a host of features, to be offered to India-based small businesses.

This will include a Business Saving/Current Account in partnership with a bank, a QR code for payments, bank transfers, GST, invoicing, pay by link, as well as credit and debit services. Tide Business Account is a digital-only service, meaning that can be opened anytime and at any location, the customer wants to open an account. The application is available currently on Android devices, on the Google Play Store.

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