SME lender Tide eyes $1bn valuation in Apis funding talks

Tide, the business banking services platform, is in advanced talks to raise new funding in a deal expected to make it Britain's latest technology unicorn.

Sky News has learnt that Tide has been negotiating the terms of an investment from Apis Partners, a prolific investor in the fintech sector, for some time. City sources cautioned that a deal between the two was not yet certain to take place, and that other investors were also in discussions.

Apis Partners has backed early-stage companies such as Moneybox, the UK-based digital wealth manager, and Thunes, a digital payments infrastructure provider. Significantly, the firm has made a string of investments in India, which is overtaking the UK as Tide's single-biggest geography.

Tide now has roughly 650,000 SME customers in both Britain and India, with the latter market expanding at a faster rate. The precise terms of a deal between Apis and Tide were unclear on Monday.

Morgan Stanley, the Wall Street bank, has been advising Tide on the fundraising, which is expected to comprise a combination of primary and secondary shares. Tide was founded in 2015 by George Bevis and Errol Damelin, before launching two years later.

It describes itself as the leading business financial platform in the UK, offering business accounts and related banking services. The company also provides its SME 'members' in the UK a set of connected administrative solutions from invoicing to accounting.

It now boasts a roughly 11% SME banking market share in Britain. Tide, which employs about 2,000 people, also launched in Germany last May.

The company's investors include Apax Partners, Augmentum Fintech and LocalGlobe. Chaired by the City grandee Sir Donald Brydon, Tide declined to comment on Monday.

Apis Partners also declined to comment..