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Tide raises $14m and partners with iwoca

Tom Belger | 07:30 Wednesday 5th July 2017

Tide has raised $14m in an investment round which included investors who have backed leading brands such as Spotify.

The mobile SME banking service has also agreed to a partnership with business lender iwoca whereby Tide's members will be given access to loans of up to £100,000 from later this summer.

Tide's investment round was led by specialist fintech investor Anthemis, alongside Creandum, a Scandinavian fund which has previously backed Spotify.

Existing investors Passion Capital and LocalGlobe also participated in the funding round, which followed a $2m seed investment last year.

The investment will be used to expand Tide's team at its central London headquarters and allow it to develop more features to help SMEs manage their finances.

“Our investors believe there is a real opportunity to support and champion small- and medium-sized companies in the wake of Brexit,” said George Bevis, founder and CEO of Tide (pictured above).

“Britain's smaller firms have been let down by traditional banks, which often charge vulnerable companies eye-watering fees and keep them waiting weeks to open a business account.”

iwoca's risk engine makes instant lending decisions based on complex data sets.

This allows it to assess the millions of SMEs currently neglected by mainstream banks and lenders.

“iwoca's innovative tie-up with Tide will enable small businesses to access finance without ever having to leave the Tide app, making the process fast, simple and hassle-free,” said Christoph Rieche, CEO and co-founder of iwoca.

“Tide has built the integration on top of iwoca's new lending API, an industry first solution which opens up our award-winning platform to partners allowing them to fund small businesses directly.”

George added: “By providing our members [with] an instant, transparent, business credit facility – which for some was difficult to obtain on the high street – we're also making it easier for small- and medium-sized companies to get the finance they need to grow.”

Eileen Burbidge, chair of Tide, felt that it was solving a problem which was a pain point for far too many businesses in the UK.

“Access to financial services on demand has become a basic expectation of businesses, which until now has been unrealised.

“With Tide, that has changed.”

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