TymeBank has secured foreign investment amounting to R1.6 billion, attracting new investors from the UK and Philippines.
The investment, which the bank said is one of the largest foreign investments any fintech company has secured in South Africa, will be deployed to further bolster the bank’s growth and secure its path to commercial success.
The new investors are Apis Growth Fund II, a private equity fund managed by Apis Partners, and JG Summit Holdings, one of the largest conglomerates in the Philippines, owned by the Gokongwei family.
“Both these investors are experienced in financial services in emerging markets. Apis is a private equity asset manager that supports growth stage financial services and financial infrastructure businesses,” TymeBank said.
Of the total investment of R1.6 billion, some R500 million has already been invested. The balance of R1.1 billion will be invested over the next 12 to 15 months, it said.
The new investment will allow TymeBank to further expand its range of banking products and grow its lending portfolio.
The bank will also seek to enhance its propositions in insurance, credit cards, and other value-added services to customers. This will support the bank’s goals of broadening access to financial services to individual clients, entrepreneurs, small and medium business owners into the banking ecosystem.
TymeBank said it now boasts over 2.8 million customers and is expected to reach a milestone of 3 million customers by the end of March 2021. This month the bank is celebrating its second anniversary, having officially launched on 26 February 2019.
The bank said it now onboards an average of 110,000 new customers per month, making it globally recognized for digital banking in emerging markets.
The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic has led to increased demand across all customer income groups in South Africa for digital banking options, it said. The bank’s goal is to grow its customer base to 4 million by 2022.
“As the controlling shareholder in TymeBank, African Rainbow Capital is delighted to have our new co-investors onboard,” said Dr Patrice Motsepe, chairman of African Rainbow Capital and majority owner of TymeBank.
“Equally important, Apis and the Gokongwei family invest in TymeBank at a time when significant uncertainty reigns globally and in South Africa as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The invested amount of R1.6 billion is no small feat – both in terms of drawing investment into South Africa’s financial services sector as well as investing into a fledgling part of the sector in our country,” he said.
