SBI Investment, a corporate venturing subsidiary of financial services provider SBI Group, co-led a £44.1m ($54.3m) series B round for UK-based digital business bank Tide yesterday.
Fintech-focused venture capital firm Augmentum Fintech co-led the round, which valued Tide at more than $247m, according to the Daily Telegraph. It was described by the company as a first round of Series B funding.
Tide is a digital bank geared toward small businesses, offering features such as multiple current accounts, enterprise expenditure categories and real-time balance updates.
Customers use Tide’s software to access their finances and set up invoices, and can seek assistance through webchats with its customer relations team. The capital will support a recruitment drive as the company explores opportunities to enter international markets.
Augmentum Fintech invested $6.4m in Tide in June this year according to media reports, an investment that likely formed its contribution to the series B round. It supplied $3.8m in convertible note financing as part of a $10.1m round in August 2018 that included unspecified existing investors.
Tide closed a $14m series A round in June 2017 that was co-led by Creandum and Anthemis and backed by Passion Capital and LocalGlobe, adding to $2m of seed funding from LocalGlobe, Passion Capital and various angel investors the previous year.
Yoshitaka Kitao, SBI Group’s president and chief executive, said: “Tide’s rapid growth, alongside the quality of its products and services used by its growing army of members, is hugely exciting.
“For more than a decade, we have been establishing an internet-based financial ecosystem to drive growth through the aggressive use of new technology. Tide fits perfectly into that ecosystem and shares our approach to business which is to be customer-centric, and innovative to create value.”