SA’s TymeBank secures $109m for commercial expansion across the country

South Africa’s digital bank, TymeBank, announced that it has secured $109 million from new investors in the UK and Philippines. The investors are Apis Growth Fund II, a private equity fund managed by Apis Partners, and Gokongwei-owned JG Summit Holdings, one of the largest conglomerates in the Philippines.

This is undoubtedly the largest fundraise for a digital bank in Africa and the bank states that the funds would be used for growth and commercial expansion across the country.

The digital bank says the investment will come in two tranches – the first tranche of $34 million (R500 million) has already been received and invested in the business while the second tranche of $75 million (R1.1 billion) will be invested over the next 12 to 15 months.

Launched in February 2019, TymeBank has been signing up approximately 100,000 customers a month since its launch. It currently has about 2.8 million customers and says it should hit the 3 million customer mark by the end of March 2021.

TymeBank is the first bank in South Africa to be fully operated off a cloud-based infrastructure network and the first to be granted a commercial banking license in almost 20 years

Though operating in South Africa, TymeBank is a member of the Tyme group of companies with its headquarters in Singapore. The holding company, Tyme, focuses on designing, building, and operating digital banks for emerging markets. Based on its success in South Africa, Tyme is planning to launch operations in Asia and has entered into an agreement to launch a digital bank in the Philippines in the coming months.