Tide
Tide is a British business neobank founded in 2015 and headquartered in London. It provides current accounts, expense cards and administrative tools for freelancers and small businesses, working with banking partners for deposit holding.1
History
Tide launched to simplify SME banking in the UK, competing with high-street business accounts on speed of onboarding and app-native expense management. It later expanded product depth around invoicing and bookkeeping integrations.
Founders
George Bevis founded Tide, the UK business neobank, in 2015 to remove financial admin friction for freelancers and small companies. A former product and innovation leader at Zopa, Barclaycard, RBS and Capital One, Bevis launched Tide as a mobile-first business current account and expense platform, partnering with licensed banks rather than holding a full deposit charter himself.
Oliver Prill joined as chief executive in 2018 to scale Tide. A German-born financial-services executive, Prill expanded membership (including significant UK SME market share) and international footprints such as India while Tide remained structured as a partner-bank / e-money business banking platform competing with Starling Bank and Qonto.
SME platform model
Tide focuses exclusively on freelancers and small businesses, bundling business accounts with expense categorisation, invoicing and admin tools. In the UK it partners with licensed banks (such as ClearBank) rather than holding a full deposit-taking charter itself, while expanding internationally including India.
Reception
Tide is often grouped with Starling Bank and Qonto in European SME digital banking. Coverage highlights membership scale in the UK SME market and the strategic hire of Oliver Prill to professionalise growth after founder George Bevis's launch phase.
Products
Tide offers business current accounts, debit cards, expense categorisation, invoicing support and membership tiers. It is often grouped with Starling Bank and Qonto as a digital SME banking brand.
References
- Tide provides business banking services in partnership with licensed banks. https://www.tide.co/about/
Frequently asked questions
- What is Tide?
- Tide is a British business neobank offering SME current accounts, cards and bookkeeping tools.
- When was Tide founded?
- Tide was founded in 2015.
- Where is Tide headquartered?
- Tide is headquartered in London, United Kingdom.
- Who founded Tide?
- Tide was founded by George Bevis.
- What type of company is Tide?
- Tide is described as Partner-bank neobank in its neobank.wiki profile.
See also
- Airwallex — Airwallex is an Australian-founded business fintech for global accounts, payments and spend management.
- Alex Johnson — Alex Johnson is the founder of Fintech Takes, a widely read fintech newsletter and podcast; he is active on X as @AlexH_Johnson.
- Alexandre Prot — Alexandre Prot is co-founder and CEO of Qonto, the Paris-based European business neobank.
- Ali Niknam — Ali Niknam is founder and CEO of Bunq, the Amsterdam-based licensed Dutch neobank.
- Ally Bank — Ally Bank is a large U.S. online bank offering deposits, loans and investment products without branches.