Tide expands credit offering to all UK SMEs through GBP 100 million debt facility

Credit Flex represents a short-term loan facility integrated into the Tide app to help manage cash flow. Eligible Tide members are pre-approved and can access up to GBP 5.000 credit immediately. Individual loans have a four-month term and an interest rate of 3.3% per month. At the time of a new payment, Tide users can use Credit Flex to spread the cost into smaller monthly payments to avoid a balance dip. Members can get an instant cash boost for their previous payments by using Credit Flex to pay back over several months. 

As flexible, short-term working capital is essential to the success of SMEs, Credit Flex aims to help small businesses spread the cost of bank transfers into smaller monthly payments. 

Earlier in 2025, Tide secured a GBP 100 million debt facility from Fasanara Capital, a UK-based investment manager, enabling Tide to make Credit Flex available to all its SME customers across the UK. 

The initiative comes at a time when Tide’s product, launched in 2017, now serves 650.000 SMEs, more than 10% of the UK market, offering bank accounts, financial and administrative tools, payment services, and expense and credit management services. 

SMEs' activity in the UK

SMEs across the UK are navigating a growing financial landscape. The Small Business Finance Markets Report for 2025 by the British Business Bank highlights the importance of business investment and the role of access to finance. Some important key findings are:

• Gross bank lending reached GBP 62 billion in 2024, representing a 4.5% increase compared to the previous year. This marks the first time since 2020 that bank lending has surpassed the growth of asset finance.

• A lack of capital investment is an important aspect behind the UK’s productivity gap with countries like France and Germany. Business that invests more in capital assets and technology tend to achieve increased productivity and long-term sustainability.

• SMEs are less likely to invest and generally do so at lower levels than larger firms. Limited access to capital and uncertainty among investors make funding growth, innovation, and productivity improvements challenging.

• SMEs often face higher borrowing costs and restricted access to finance due to perceived risks and lower availability of financial data. These barriers reduce investment capacity, slowing business expansion.