London-based fintech platform Tide is planning to get 10 lakh small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on board in India by December 2024.

Tide, the UK's SME-focused business financial platform, has onboarded 50,000 SMEs since its entry in India in December 2022, a company statement said.

With the quick platform adoption and the market potential in India, Tide is confident that 10 lakh SMEs will join its platform and benefit from its digital business banking suite by the end of the year 2024.

Tide also crossed 2.25 lakh app downloads on Google Play Store in March, since its launch, the statement added.

With a compliance-first approach to its India market strategy, Tide has onboarded and issued RuPay Cards to all the member SMEs (customers) on its platform only after a video Know Your Customer (v-KYC), it stated.

The Reserve Bank of India-mandated compliances will aid in preventing unauthorized users from accessing the platform and prevent bad actors from taking advantage of the platform.

The process in turn supports the inclusion of SMEs in the formal economy, deepens the penetration of Digital India initiatives, and boosts credit access for the underserved segments.

Tide has also issued 50,000 fully KYC RuPay cards for its members, it stated.

The company's current member base in India reveals Gen Z and millennials display a strong entrepreneurial drive with 90 per cent members in the sub-40 age group, it stated.
     
Early adoption of Tide's business banking services is being seen across Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar, and Rajasthan.

The platform is garnering adoption from small Mom & Pop shops, small restaurants and solopreneurs like actors, bakers, beauticians, doctors, physiotherapists, teachers, business coaches, insurance brokers, and accounting and tax professionals.

Gurjodhpal Singh, CEO of Tide (India) said Tide believes that the success of a financial platform lies in being agile and compliant at the same time.

"While we are on track to achieve our target to onboard 10 lakh SMEs by the end of 2024, we are not losing sight of compliance at any point during this journey," Singh noted.

With nine per cent of the SME market share in the UK, Tide is aiming to expand its presence in the Indian SME ecosystem across Tier 1, 2 and 3 cities.

In the coming months the fintech is set to launch a suite of tailored products including a business savings/current account in partnership with a bank, QR code for payments, bank transfers, invoicing, GST, pay by link, and credit services, it stated.