Tide’s entry to India, its first market outside the UK, marks the culmination of an 18-month long effort to establish its business on the sub-continent. In July, the firm launched its first product, a prepaid card rolled out as an entry product, backed by Indian card payment network, Rupay.

The introduction of business accounts will give SMEs access to a fully-functioning contactlesspayments experience, tracking spending and expenses for both instore and e-commerce purchases.

Oliver Prill, CEO, Tide says: "India’s 64 million SMEs are the backbone of its economy, providing vital services, jobs and growth. We believe there is a vast untapped segment of small businesses in India that hasn’t been formally accounted for. We, at Tide, are committed to introducing and including a large segment of this market into the formal economy.”

Prill says the compamny is working to introduce a host of other features which it will offer to small businesses across India. These include a Business Savings/ Current Account in partnership with a bank, QR code for payments, bank transfers, invoicing, GST, pay by link and credit services.

Gurjodhpal Singh, CEO, Tide (India) says: “As Tide scales in India, we will expand our product offering for entrepreneurs to both manage their finances seamlessly, and to take the big step of starting out - whether as a freelancer, sole trader, contractor or small business owner. We are building a product that will not just offer business accounts and related banking services, but a comprehensive set of highly usable administrative solutions.”