Introducing Tide Capital, part of our pioneering pre-approved credit model

Today we announced the launch of Tide Capital, a subsidiary company allowing Tide to offer our own credit products to members for the first time.

To better support small businesses, Tide Capital is breaking new ground by giving pre-approved members access to credit without an application, they just tap and go. Members selected as being pre-approved by Tide will be offered exclusive membership to Tide Premium, through which a Credit Line of £1,000 will be added to their account.  

The selected members will also have access to other features, including an account manager, phone support, legal helpline and free bank transfers. All features, including credit, are included and paid for as part of the monthly fee for Tide Premium. There are no hidden fees layered on top of this.

Tide is the first financial services company to offer pre-approved credit to SMEs, which eliminates the laborious application process and removes the uncertainty of being accepted. Tide is also the first to offer credit as part of a membership, which keeps fees clear and transparent. In the future, Tide plans to offer members not only credit products through Tide Capital, but additional third-party products using its digital banking platform as well.

Amit Kahana, Managing Director of Tide Capital said, “The creation of Tide Capital and of our own credit product is an extremely exciting move for Tide. We are incredibly pleased that by offering a Credit Line through a membership plan we are able to eliminate the stress of ‘getting approved for credit’. Furthermore, we believe that bundling multiple services will save our members time and money, as we can suggest the right package for them.

“With our current member data we already know who is approved for credit and who isn’t, so if you are approved you can immediately activate the product without any need for an application. Over time, as we gather additional data we will make more members eligible for the product. This will be a long journey for us, and we’re looking forward to getting started!”

Access to credit is vitally important for SMEs. Through conversations and surveys with Tide members and with the wider SME community Tide has identified that the main cause of stress and time wasting for SMEs is cashflow. Tide is removing this drain on resources by offering a unique product that is quick and simple, with transparent fees.

Oliver Prill, CEO, Tide  said, “Tide’s mission is to save SME owners time (and money), and building our credit proposition through Tide Capital is key to delivering on this mission. 

“Offering a Credit Line to Premium members is the next stage of our credit offering. Our long-term strategy combines proprietary products with partnerships with third-party lenders. Tide’s platform structure means we are able to make rich data available to partner lenders to orchestrate a smooth process for our members to access credit. This has proven to be a successful model through the Beta integration currently running with Iwoca. 

“The exception to partnering with lenders is in providing transactional credit, where frequent real time decision making can not optimally be done with a partner, hence the pioneering product created via Tide Capital.”

Following ClearBank, in partnership with Tide, receiving a £60m grant from the RBS Alternative Remedies Package a number of product commitments were made. These commitments include plans for Tide to add many more credit partners to the platform in due course.