Tide, the UK’s leading business financial platform, has today launched its first product in Germany, a free current account aimed at small businesses. In March, Tide announced it planned to make the Tide app available in Germany – Tide’s third market following the UK and India, where it successfully launched in December 2022.

Tide will gradually offer a full range of other services to members (customers) in Germany, including invoicing, accounting features, and eventually credit. The deposits that customers hold in their account are protected by the statutory European deposit protection scheme, up to an amount of 100,000 euros.

The rollout of services in Germany will follow Tide in the UK, where it serves 590,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) or more than 10%  of the market share. Across India, Tide has grown its member base to more than 225,000 micro and small and medium entrepreneurs, with a strong presence in Delhi and Mumbai and in regions beyond these two urban hubs.

Germany represents a major opportunity for Tide. Europe’s largest economy is home to nearly three million small businesses, of which the vast majority employ less than 10 people.  The German SME sector employs 5.9m people who are increasingly turning to digital solutions to manage their finances.

Tide’s long-term ambition is to be the leading business financial platform globally. Tide employs around 1,800 people in its headquarters in the UK, India and Bulgaria, with offices in all three countries. Tide already has a number of employees working in Berlin. The company plans to expand its presence in Germany this year, including making senior-level appointments.

Oliver Prill, CEO at Tide, said: “Tide has a deep understanding of the pain points of the self-employed and freelancers in Germany – and we are here to help reduce these financial and admin management burdens with our business financial platform. This leaves small businesses to focus on the fundamentals, which is the management of their businesses, allowing them to save time and money. We’re currently working on rolling out our platform capabilities in Germany over the course of the year and beyond.”

Individuals who want to open a Tide account in Germany can download the Tide app and open an account seven days a week.