South African neobank, TymeBank, has crossed 10 million customers in less than 6 years since it was founded, the bank said in a statement.
According to the bank, it has close to R7 billion ($401 million) in customer deposits and has disbursed more than R12 billion ($687.73 million) to over 80,000 small businesses in South Africa.
Launched in 2019, the bank looks back to the acquisition of Retail Capital, a fintech company offering funding to small and medium-sized enterprises in South Africa in late 2022, as having been a transformative move and crucial to the growth of the bank’s SME lending services.
Karl Westvig, who officially assumed the role of CEO at TymeBank in October 2024, stated that one of the bank’s most notable accomplishments was achieving “break-even, potentially in record time.”
The bank became profitable in December 2023, a milestone for a digital bank on the continent at the time under its former CEO and Co-Founder, Coenraad Jonker. Jonker has now taken on the role of executive chair of the Tyme Group, which is currently valued at nearly $1 billion (approximately R17 billion).
🇿🇦 MILESTONE | South Africa’s TymeBank Announces Profitability – A Rare Milestone For a Digital Bank in Africa
“Less than half of the top 100 digital banks are profitable, and less than 5% of all neobanks worldwide have reached profitability.
Our success, reaching… pic.twitter.com/KkTpTWscGC
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) January 19, 2024
YymeBank is however not just a digital bank but a hybrid bank, pointing out that is one of the factors for its success. Its so-called ‘phygital’ operating model, which integrates digital banking into physical retail outlets through partnerships with Pick n Pay, Boxer, and more recently TFG, allows it to optimise its distribution network, Tymebank said.
Going forward, the bank’s immediate priorities include launching a new banking app aimed at attracting a more affluent customer base and expanding its services through strategic partnerships. It has also ventured into consumer lending, utilizing AI tools to assess customer creditworthiness by analyzing patterns like grocery spending. The bank notes that this is a crucial component of its personal loan offering.
TymeBank is set to expand into Indonesia later in October 2024 following the launch of GoTyme Bank in the Philippines in October 2022 and its entry into Vietnam earlier in 2024.
🇿🇦FINTECH AFRICA | South African Digital Bank, TymeBank, to Launch in Indonesia by End of 2024 #TymeBank, the first digital bank to break even in South Africa and the entire continent within five years of its launch in February 2019, has seemingly earmarked the South East Asian… pic.twitter.com/tAvmn9Z5bN
— BitKE (@BitcoinKE) August 28, 2024
The group, which is controlled by Patrice Motsepe’s African Rainbow Capital, is also preparing for a public listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 2028.
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