Leading Ripple Partner, SBI, Subsidiary Invests in UK-based Digital Bank For SME’s

SBI Investment Co, the wholly-owned subsidiary of one of Ripple’s leading banking partners SBI Holdings has invested in the London-based Tide Godling Limited, which provides digital services for SMEs, announced the bank. Tide is a neobank that offers an SME-specific digital baking platform.

Tide is also in partnership with UK-based ClearBank, which holds a banking license and secured a grant of £60m, from the RBS Alternative Remedies Package in February.

Now, the bank is looking to expand internationally after closing this first of two series B funding round, raising £44.1m.

“Securing this substantial investment from successful fintech investors like The SBI Group and Augmentum, underlines how far the business has come in a short time,”

said Tide CEO, Oliver Prill.

“We believe this is one of the largest Series B rounds ever secured by a UK fintech company.”

Prill also added that

“we are ready for an exciting future, which includes looking at taking Tide to an international market.”

Since its launch in Japan two and a half years back, it has opened more than 100,000 total number of accounts and about 8,000 new accounts.

Tide is part of SBI Fund’s investment in “promising” venture companies in Japan and overseas in the fintech field including AI, blockchain, IoT, and robotics. The SBI A & B Fund has over 120 investors and plans to continue to proactively work to “improve the corporate value of next-generation industries and venture companies as investment destinations.”