Tide CEO Oliver Prill on the 2023 outlook for the fintech sector
In an exclusive interaction with People Matters, Prill elaborated on the 2023 outlook for the fintech sector in terms of business and people.
FinTech really has been positively affected by the pandemic, said Prill. “There has been a massive acceleration of digitalisation not only in India but around the globe. The rising penetration of fintech has transformed our day-to-day life and pushed a sizable number of the population to depend on fintech for their daily and business needs while making payments or funding a business. I believe this will continue to grow in times to come, and there's no question about it. FinTech and traditional financial services will increasingly converge where banking players will become more digital, and fintech will become more mature. Becoming more digital will lead to a more mature FinTech sector globally,” he explains.
In view of the flourishing fintech market size and capitalising it further, Tide has announced to strengthen its workforce in India. Currently, Tide operates in the UK and India. It also has a technology and support centre in Bulgaria.
“We've committed ourselves to invest 100 million pounds in the next four years and to bring the workforce up to 1,000. So we're not actually cutting jobs anywhere. We're just growing,” he said.
The outlook in India
There is a big difference between the India and global markets in many ways, said Prill. “India as a market has an enormous underbanked sector to be tapped, which has a huge opportunity to unlock as compared to other markets.”
He said that the country has a fantastic talent pool and a huge untapped opportunity in the SME sector. “The primary motivation to go to India is actually to tap the talent this country has, particularly product engineering.”
The majority of the MSME units operate in the informal sector and may not have proper access to the banking system. Hence, by giving them access to finance and payment systems, etc. Tide can play an important role in addressing the issue and help them to become the growth driver.
The company has plans to penetrate deeper to serve people and businesses and improve financial inclusion in Tier II, III, and IV cities in India and beyond.
“The idea is to make financial inclusion understood as a small enterprise segment which means we need to focus on two segments i.e. new to operate and new to the business. In both these categories, there is a huge influence. A lot of unorganised businesses will need financial products for payments, to do a bunch of other things around the business. These are our main focus segments to start with, and bring them under a digital umbrella.”
As part of workforce expansion in India, Tide is expected to create jobs for product engineering and other profiles.
Needs of the workforce in 2023
The pandemic altered the way the workforce used to work. “People are still learning new things that emerged in a post-pandemic world. Employers need to be liberal about remote working. However, there are instances where pure remote working doesn't work for individuals and they need social interaction to create a network within the office. Hence, provisions of physical togetherness along with remote working will be a priority for the workforce in 2023,” added Prill.
Flexible work culture and people-first culture will continue to dominate in 2023, he added, where rewards, engagement, and loyalty infrastructure for businesses are taken care of.
He also touched on the state of DEI at Tide. A relatively young company, it is ethnically extremely diverse. “Despite being a UK-based company, the majority of our workforce is Indian and thanks to a remote culture that has helped us tap talent from across the geography.”
Elaborating on DEI, he also explained that Tide has a lot of strong female leaders, and the company will continue to work on that. “We are keen to not discriminate against anything that is nationality or ethnically based; we only focus on talent.”
2022 brought us chaos, but also the opportunity to review, renew, and advance. Read the end-2022 issue of People Matters Digital Magazine for a look back, and some key takeaways to bring forward.