Tyme Group (Tyme) raised a $250 million Series D round which valued the company at $1.5 billion.
Tyme is one of two popular African fintechs to have raised a Series D round. In the ZIRP era, Flutterwave raised the same amount in Series D funding but at twice the valuation.
Nu Holdings Ltd. (Nu) led Tyme’s round with $150 million, while M&G Catalyst fund and other existing shareholders contributed $50 million each.
Tyme, headquartered in Singapore, is a digital banking group operating in emerging markets. The digital bank is live in South Africa as TymeBank with over 10 million users. In the Philippines, the company operates as GOTyme with over 5 million users. So, across the Tyme group, there are more than 15 million users. They have $100 million in customer deposits and extended over $600 million in financing to small businesses.
Launched in October 2022, GOTyme is a joint venture with the Gokongwei group, a Philippine conglomerate. Gokongwei-owned JG Summit Holdings, Inc. invested in the first part of Tyme’s $110 million Series B. As of March 2024, JG Summit held a 22.7% stake in GOTyme Bank Corporation.
China’s Tencent and CDC Group, a UK Development Finance Institution (DFI), later joined the investment round, contributing $70 million. This brought the total funding raised in Tyme’s Series B round to $180 million.
Other investors in Tyme include the Founders, African Rainbow Capital, The Ethos AI Fund, Apis Growth Fund II (‘Apis’), British International Investment (BII), Norrsken 22, Blue Earth and Lavender Hill Capital Partners.
Nubank, Tyme potential conflict of interest?
Nu Holdings Ltd. is Latin America’s most valuable financial company, thanks to Nubank. The digital bank has 110 million users in three markets, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia. While Gokongwei was able to collaborate on a Tyme JV in its core market, Nubank’s investment strategy isn’t so. Otherwise, it might lead to a conflict of (expansion) interest.
David Vélez, Founder and CEO of Nubank, said, “We have met dozens of teams across different geographies, and we think that Tyme Group is extremely well-positioned to be a digital bank leader in Africa and Southeast Asia [markets where Nu is not present]. [emphasis ours]”
Speaking to Bloomberg, Tyme CEO and co-founder, Coenraad Jonker, said, “They [Nubank] do not have plans to organically grow into Southeast Asia.” He added that the LatAm company’s investment in Tyme “is really the bet that they are taking as Nubank in Southeast Asia and Africa.”
This funding will fuel Tyme’s expansion, particularly in Southeast Asia to Vietnam and Indonesia. Rather than compete, Nubank’s partnership will bring valuable expertise in key areas. “Nubank transformed financial services in Brazil. We are excited by the value that Nubank’s thought partnership and advice can bring to Tyme particularly in areas such as data analytics, credit risk management, product development and marketing – levers we believe are key to achieving leadership in our markets. This is a moment of great significance for Tyme,” said Jonker.
Velez said, “We [Nubank] are excited to work with Tyme to share many of our learnings of scaling this model to hundreds of millions of customers.”
Tyme’s history and hybrid model
TYME is an acronym that means “Take Your Money Everywhere”.
It first started as a telco client project in 2012 at Deloitte South Africa. The Big 4 was building a mobile banking service for the client but had to discontinue. According to Group executive Tauriq Keraan, who was on the Deloitte team, a decision had to be made. Shut down the project or spin it off as a standalone commercial business. They chose the latter and launched it in July as a neobanking service. In 2017, they managed to secure a banking licence, after none was issued for the last 18 years. In February 2019, TymeBank launched.
The idea for TymeBank was to solve the problem of high cost and poor customer service. While South Africa is praised for its high levels of digitalisation, only 2% of all retail purchases happened via e-commerce. Sixty per cent were still happening in-person and with cash as the payment method.
Thus, the company came up with an asset-light way of interacting with customers physically. It partnered with one of the country’s distributed retail chains, Pick n Pay Group. At select kiosks within the supermarket, customers could open bank accounts swiftly. And at till points, they could withdraw or deposit funds. Simultaneously, the bank benefitted from the scalability and efficiency of its cloud-based infrastructure.
This model caught on in the country. In February 2021, it had 2.8 million customers. Two months later, it had 3 million customers. The digital bank told TechCrunch that it was adding over 110,000 new customers per month.
TymeBank’s hybrid model is reminiscent of Nigeria’s Moniepoint, which boasts a large agent footprint across the country. Investors are taking note, given the high levels of financial exclusion and low levels of digital adoption in Africa. Two months ago, Moniepoint announced a $110 million Series C.
“Investing in innovative companies like Tyme Group is essential for driving financial inclusion in underserved markets. M&G’s Catalyst is able to invest in transformative initiatives that create lasting social impact,” commented Praveg Patil, Head of Asia Pacific, Impact & Private Equity at M&G. “Through this investment we are addressing the needs of communities that have traditionally been excluded from the financial system to build a more inclusive financial ecosystem.”
South African billionaire Patrice Motsepe controls Tyme Group through his firm African Rainbow Capital’s 40% stake. Jonker told Bloomberg that Motsepe’s African Rainbow Capital Investments Ltd. will remain Tyme’s lead shareholder. “Our status as South Africa’s only Black owned and Black controlled commercial bank actually remains in place.”
Patrice Motsepe said, “As the long-term strategic shareholder in Tyme, we enthusiastically welcome the partnership with leading global digital bank, Nubank, as we are convinced this will lead to an even higher and significantly accelerated growth trajectory for the multi-country Tyme Group.”
Tyme’s $250 million Series D brings the company’s total amount raised to over $600 million in four years. This will likely be the company’s last fundraiser before a 2028 IPO, cited by Bloomberg.
