Tide
“Can a UK SMB banking platform become the full financial OS for small businesses — combining banking, lending, payments acceptance, payroll, and insurance in a single app?”
Tide launched in 2015 as a mobile-first business current account for UK SMBs, differentiating via ease of onboarding and zero-monthly-fee tiers. It progressively layered on adjacent financial services — expense cards, payroll, invoicing, and accounting integrations — to become a full business management platform. The acquisition of Funding Options transformed Tide into the UK's largest SMB credit marketplace, layering orchestrated lending over its banking base. By 2025 Tide had embedded insurance via Admiral Business and expanded internationally to Germany and India, signalling a strategic push to own the full financial stack for SMBs beyond the UK.