Tide, A Brand Boasting Unique Marriage Of Technology and Finance To Offer Efficient New-Age Fin-Tech Solutions For SMEs

2015 founded and 2017 launched business marvel, Tide, is today a leading business financial platform in the UK. Tide is synonymous with a financial life-saver for SMEs to redeem time and money efficient solutions. While money allows hassle-free operations of a business venture with a successful stance, for years Tide has been bridging the gap in the fin-tech domain.

Tide has been assisting brands beyond business accounts and related banking services as it effortlessly travels the extra mile to support its partners with a comprehensive set of highly usable administrative solutions.

Today, the brand boasts almost 340,000 SME members in the UK which contributes to over 5% market share. Tide has a long-term ambition to be a leading player in markets accounting for 25% of global SMEs. As its first international market, Tide aims to provide innovative financial and administrative services for quickly digitising SMEs in India.

Apart from supporting the organised SME sector in India, Tide will also focus on serving the unregistered and unorganised sector, helping bring these SMEs into the mainstream.

The industry trailblazer plans to acquire 25,000 members in the next financial year and scale up to two million customers in the next five years. Tide is committed to serving the 63-million and growing Indian SME sector and will help unleash the true potential of Indian small businesses.

THE MAN LEADING TIDE, INDIA

For Tide’s India operations, the man of the moment is Gurjodhpal Singh who is currently leading in the prominent position of CEO for Tide in India. The IIM, Ahmedabad alumnus has dedicated 13 precious years of his life to the fin-tech and financial services domain.

Some of his most recent roles have been leading the SME merchant payments and credit businesses at PayU, the leading payment service provider in India. He has also extensively worked towards providing superior services to SMEs.

“With my experience in supporting Indian SMEs over many years, I am working towards establishing Tide's business in India and scaling it over the coming years. I am extremely passionate about helping SMEs digitise and use intuitive technology to help them save time (and money) on the running of their businesses. I look forward to creating something new for Indian SMEs through Tide, that will empower them to reach their full potential,” few words from the desk of GurjodhpalSingh.

To grasp more about leadership from the standpoint of the leader and various aspects of the business at Tide, The CEO Magazine conversed with Gurjodhpal Singh. Here are the edited excerpts:

The CEO: How do you solve challenges as a top position holder at Tide, India?

Gurjodhpal: As a leader, I strongly believe in empowering my team. Enabling talent to solve problems on their own with creative solutions to address our members’ pain points is something I vouch for. ‘Ownership’ is deep-rooted in Tide’s culture, and as a leader that is one very important value, I look to imbibe in my team.

Secondly, we at Tide, have a ‘member first’ approach, delivering the best experience and bringing value to SMEs is central to our culture. Moreover, we follow a data-driven approach in our decision making. We have one global platform and one global product team, this ensures that we bring the best product and experience to Indian SMEs.

The CEO: Tell us about the Tide team and how are you building a dynamic team?

Gurjodhpal: Tide plans to hire 350 skilled professionals in 2021 across Hyderabad and Gurugram. With this, the company's total headcount in India will cross 400 by the end of the year. These roles are across verticals including engineering, product development, member support and service, marketing, to name a few.

Tide is building a robust team in India, by creating a pool of experienced and top-level talent that will help build the business and scale operations over the coming years. We are known to be the employer of choice providing an open, collaborative and fulfilling work culture and experience where people go out of their way to be supportive and work as one global team.

The CEO: What are your thoughts about success? Whom would you like to credit your success to?

Gurjodhpal: I believe success is about creating value. The focus on delivering value to the end customers ensures that you keep growing and learning through your journey. I have had the opportunity to work with amazing organizations and mentors, this has helped me imbibe the values of entrepreneurship and ownership.

The fin-tech sector is striving to make financial services more accessible and efficient -- this adds a lot of value to the ecosystem and is central to my professional satisfaction.

The CEO: What are the achievements you are most proud of today?

Gurjodhpal: Being the first player in the ecosystem to deliver 100% digital onboarding for SMEs, our existence has enabled SMEs to start collecting digital payments within a few minutes is an achievement worth mentioning. Enabling 300,000+ SMEs with digital payments acquiring solutions as a business head (from 2013 to 2017) is a milestone I take the most pride in.

The CEO: What are the next milestones you plan to reach in your current position?

Gurjodhpal: I am extremely passionate about helping SMEs across India to digitise and use intuitive technology by assisting them to save time and money efficiently on the running of their businesses. I look forward to creating something new for Indian SMEs through Tide, that will empower them to reach their full potential.

The CEO: What advice would you give to future entrepreneurs?

Gurjodhpal: The two most important pieces of advice I would like to give are, first, always focus on creating and delivering value to the end customer; second, there is no substitute for hard work and persistence.

Gurjodhpal decided to sum up the interview with a quote by famous Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”