Tale as old as Tyme: how a successful African digital bank landed in the Philippines

This is the first installment of a two-part series on Tyme Group.

In May, Singapore-headquartered Tyme Group raised US$78 million in series C funding. The round is ongoing, with more international investors expected to chip in before the end of the year.

Chinese internet giant Tencent, an existing investor, also increased its stake to become Tyme’s third-largest shareholder.

Founded in 2012 by Coenraad Jonker and Tjaart van der Walt, Tyme Group started out by building core banking systems for banks in Africa. This included Mobile Money, a remittance partnership with South Africa-based Access Bank, retail business Pick N Pay, and telco firm MTN, as well as providing tech services to EBank, a digital bank in Namibia.

In a 2021 podcast interview, Jonker said that while Tyme initially offered banking-as-a-service solutions to other organizations, he and van der Walt had always wanted to open their own digital bank.

Photo credit: Tyme

The company, which now operates TymeBank in South Africa and GoTyme in the Philippines, says it serves over 4 million active customers across the world. It also runs TymeX, a “technology engine” that enables the firm to build and scale its operations globally.

How did a company with roots in Africa come to be based in Singapore? What is its strategy for growing its presence in Southeast Asia?

A Down Under boomerang

In 2015, Tyme was acquired by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), the country’s largest bank by assets, loans, and deposits.

At the time, CBA said that acquiring Tyme gave it “new opportunities” in emerging markets and could “enhance innovation” in its core markets of Australia and New Zealand.

But this was not to be.

In 2018, Australia’s royal commission led a nearly year-long public inquiry into wrongdoing by the country’s biggest banks. Amid the probe, CBA decided to refocus on its core markets and divest its stake in Tyme.

African Rainbow Capital (ARC), an investment firm that was a minority shareholder in Tyme at the time, bought CBA’s stake. ARC is focused on diversified investments and opportunities in the financial services sector of Africa, particularly South Africa.

Jonker, who had joined CBA as an executive following the acquisition, stayed involved with Tyme after the divestment as co-founder and executive chairman.

Success in South Africa

Looking east for growth

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