More than one in 10 (c.11%) small businesses in the UK use the Tide app. Tide provides a service for small businesses which don’t have their own finance function, such as sole traders and smaller limited companies. Tide offers business accounts and related banking services, including a savings account, but also a comprehensive set of highly usable and connected admin solutions including invoicing, accounting and company formations.

In the UK, 75% of Tide’s members are based outside Greater London, with 14% in Northwest England, 10% in the West Midlands, and 11% in Southeast England.

These small businesses typically operate in sectors such as e-commerce and construction, while many solopreneurs work as a driver or courier. In India, about 90% of Tide members are in semi-urban and rural areas, with Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh representing the top three states.

Today’s milestone underscores Tide’s commitment to save SMEs time (and money) when managing their finance and admin.

Highlights:

• More than 1 in 10 UK small businesses on Tide (c. 11%)
• 650,000 members in the UK and 350,000 in India
• 1,800 employees globally, mostly in the UK, India, Bulgaria and Serbia

Oliver Prill, CEO of Tide, said: “To have one million members globally using the Tide app to run their small business is a tremendous milestone. It reflects our mission to help SMEs thrive, by saving them time and money in their finance and admin.

“It’s a testament to the extraordinary hard work and ambition of our teams. The growth of our member base, since launching in the UK in 2017, shows how far we have come as a company in product, skill and geographic depth and scale. We will continue to focus on an experience that caters to the needs of time-poor and admin-heavy small business owners, and deliver a diversified product as we grow globally.”

Internationalisation: Tide launches in Germany

Germany represents a major opportunity for Tide as Europe’s largest economy. The expansion into the first EU market, reflects Tide’s long-term ambition to become a leading global platform for SMEs.

Senior hires: widening the Executive for expansion

Tide has made a number of notable senior appointments this year:

• Tide appointed George Schmidt, who has been leading the growth function at Tide since 2018, as CEO UK/Europe. He will join Tide CEO, India Gurjodhpal Singh as the second Regional CEO reporting to Tide CEO Oliver Prill.
• Tide also promoted Rebecca Marriot to Chief Risk Officer. Rebecca was Tide’s SVP of Risk and Compliance since 2018 and she will provide global oversight as Tide expands.
• Anna Fromme-Schoen has been appointed as Managing Director of Tide in Germany. Based in Berlin, Anna is working with a growing team to establish and expand Tide’s presence in Germany. Anna joined Tide from PayPal Germany.

Ongoing commitment to Net Zero

SMEs play a crucial role in the global effort to reduce carbon emissions. Earlier this year, Tide partnered with Connect Earth to introduce products, features and content to help UK SMEs in their journey to achieving Net Zero.

Women in Business: championing female-led businesses

• UK: In February, Tide launched its first Female Business Owners Index looking into the main issues impacting female-led small businesses. This was part of Tide’s commitment to help 200,000 women launch new UK businesses by 2027.
• India: In April, Tide also launched its first Bharat Women Aspiration Index (BWAI) to highlight the experiences of women entrepreneurs in India’s tier II and beyond cities. Tide is planning to onboard 500,000 women-led businesses in India by 2027.

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The program aims to modernize and simplify the insurance group’s finance function across its three notable brands — MAAF, MMA, and GMF. Together, Accenture and Sopra Steria will help Covéa converge three separate accounting systems into one integrated platform, which will better integrate with other systems across the business and improve the user experience for finance employees.

Phases of this program include deploying advanced technology tools and data models; standardizing processes; and implementing new budget-tracking software. This will enable Covéa to transform other parts of its business more effectively with a consolidated accounting platform that improves visibility and integrates with other operational processes.

The platform will be developed on SAP S/4HANA® and also uses the Accenture Finance Transformation Solution, which improves financial reporting and enables consistent data models for accounting and consolidating financial results. The solution provides pre-configured templates for standard accounting processes for faster implementation time at a lower cost. Covéa will also use Axway Accounting Integration Suite (AI Suite), which helps streamline data integration from multiple accounting systems into the new platform. The AI Suite also includes transformation rules designed in compliance with Covéa’s specific policies, handles exceptions and generates audit trails ensuring that all data delivered can be justified.

“This innovative project is an integral part of our ongoing transformation initiative,” said Aude Messin, Covéa’s director of finance transformation. “We are proud to drive this change with our finance team and are committed to unifying and modernizing our finance landscape with SAP S/4HANA and Axway applications, with which Accenture and Sopra Steria have specific expertise.”

Laurent Gaultier, who leads Accenture’s Insurance practice in France, said, “Insurers are contending with significant changes to their accounting practices, with disruption from new technologies. We are thrilled to be helping Covéa work toward a new vision for their finance function, building a core platform to help them achieve more innovation across the organization and ultimately build a business for the future.”

Guillaume Steyer, director of Insurance for Sopra Steria’s Insurance and Social Protection practice, said, “Our priority is to facilitate the convergence of the three brands by supporting Covéa’s strategic and business departments. Thanks to our end-to-end offering, we have all the assets required to ensure the success of this project by combining our consulting teams’ approach with our expertise in Axway’s AI Suite solution for accounting integration projects.”

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