Business banking platform Tide has acquired Onfolk, a payroll solution for UK SMEs.
With integrations for accounting, pension and people systems, the move strengthens Tide’s administrative proposition for small businesses.
More than one in 10 small businesses in the UK currently use the Tide app. After the acquisition, Onfolk will be integrated into the Tide app and become Tide Payroll.
The acquisition furthers Tide’s mission to help small businesses save time and money by providing a key service so its 650,000 UK customers can further manage their businesses from the Tide app.
Tide Payroll will seamlessly connect with Tide’s leading financial and back-office solutions, including invoice generation, payment services and expense cards to save members time and money.
Onfolk is an HMRC recognized payroll software integrated with pension providers and accounting providers. For payroll administrators and beneficiaries, generate payrolls with intuitive explanations for each concept.
Other features include automation of tax code notices and pension allocations, payroll document storage, with connectivity between payroll and accounting. Existing Onfolk customers will be able to continue using the Onfolk platform.
As part of the acquisition, the Onfolk team will join Tide and lead Tide Payroll. Onfolk was founded by Michael Colley, Naz Malik and Charlie Thomas in 2020, and was backed by Silicon Valley’s Y Combinator in 2021.
Onfolk is Tide’s second acquisition following its purchase of Funding Options in early 2023 and will help the business diversify and ultimately help drive member and revenue growth in the UK and globally.
“Payroll is an important part of running any successful small business and we want to help our members simplify that process,” said Oliver Prill, CEO of Tide.
“Once again, Tide is simplifying a burdensome administrative process for small business owners by seamlessly connecting it to the multitude of disconnected administrative and financial tasks. As a result, small businesses can increasingly manage their businesses almost entirely from a single intuitive application.
“Mergers and acquisitions are a key part of Tide’s growth strategy and we are delighted to welcome the Onfolk team to Tide. “His expertise will accelerate our product roadmap and support our diversification strategy.”
Michael Colley and Naz Malik, co-founders of Onfolk, stated: “We are very excited to have Onfolk become part of Tide, a leader in supporting small businesses.
“We are fully aligned with their mission to save business owners time and money, and we see this as an incredible opportunity to make payroll even more accessible for businesses around the world.
“As part of Tide, we will help companies spend less time on administration and more time focusing on what they do best: leading and growing their business.”
Earlier this month, Tide surpassed 1 million customers worldwide, including 650,000 in the UK and 350,000 in India, where it launched in December 2022. It entered the German market in May.