Tide is a bank for small and medium businesses that want to manage their money on the go through their smartphone app. Tide is authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under the Electronic Money Regulations (900843).

Tide‘s focus is on app and card-based banking. The Tide app can be used to set up an account, manage finances, and order a MasterCard. The entire process is done through smartphone software, which provides a streamlined way to bank.

Customers who open a business checking account with Tide receive a full U.K. bank routing number, an account number and a business MasterCard. Businesses can add up to 35 cards per account for employee use.

Tide´s main products are:

• Expense Cards
• Invoicing
• Direct Debit
• Cashflow Insights
• Business Loans
• Company Registration
• Virtual Office Address
• Company Name Check
• Credit Builder

While Tide operates almost exactly like a bank, the e-money accounts are provided by PrePay Solutions (PPS), and the business bank accounts are provided by ClearBank.

For Tide‘s bank accounts, deposits up to £85,000 are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), while the e-money accounts offer no protection.

The company was founded in 2015 by George Bevis (Linkedin) as a fintech company and has grown steadily since then. In early 2019, the company secured £60 million in funding to expand its offering through a partnership with ClearBank.

The Tide mobile app was in beta mode until the official launch in January 2017 and now serves over 370,000 businesses and has raised over £200 million in funding.

We could not find any major irregularities around the company; however, more and more customers are complaining about blocked or suddenly closed accounts.
We rate Tide on Green, for the time being, putting the company on our watchlist.