Tyme

Tyme Group is a multi-country digital banking group headquartered in Singapore that designs, builds and operates digital banks for consumers and small and medium-sized enterprises in emerging markets. Its operating model centres on GoTymeX (formerly TymeX), a single digital banking platform and multi-country product, design, data analytics and engineering organisation with teams in Vietnam, India and China that supports the group's in-country banks. The Singapore head office houses business development, strategy, international partnerships and data analytics.

The group's first bank, GoTyme Bank ZA (formerly TymeBank), was launched in South Africa in February 2019 as a greenfield digital bank deployment and has surpassed 10 million customers. Its second bank, GoTyme Bank in the Philippines, launched in October 2022 in partnership with the Gokongwei Group. Products across the markets include checking and savings accounts with debit cards, and credit in the form of buy now, pay later schemes and cash advances. The company describes a "high tech and high touch" approach that combines online banking with physical service touchpoints.

As of its own reporting, Tyme serves more than 22 million customers in South Africa and the Philippines, of which more than 11 million are described as active, adds roughly 500,000 new customers per month, and employs more than 1,900 people worldwide. It states a total addressable market of more than 100 million people in its two current markets and says it is moving into a third market.

Founding story

Sources report Tyme Group as founded in 2019 by Tjaart van der Walt with Coen Jonker as chairman; Jonker is also identified as co-founder and CEO, and as Executive Chairman and Co-Founder.

Business model

Tyme builds and operates licensed digital banks in individual emerging markets, often with local partners (for example the Gokongwei Group in the Philippines), while centralising product, design, technology and data analytics in a shared platform, GoTymeX, that serves each in-country bank.

The group provides retail and SME banking services — transaction and savings accounts with debit cards, buy now pay later credit and merchant cash advances — and states that it lowers the cost of transactions and credit for customers.

Traction

More than 22 million customers across South Africa and the Philippines (over 11 million active), with over 10 million in South Africa; approximately 500,000 new customers per month; more than 1,900 employees. At the time of its December 2024 Series D it reported 15 million customers, over $400 million in customer deposits and more than $600 million of financing extended to small businesses.

Latest developments

In December 2024 Tyme closed an oversubscribed $250 million Series D led by Nubank at a $1.5 billion valuation, bringing total capital raised to nearly $600 million, with plans to expand into Vietnam and Indonesia and a stated ambition to pursue a New York IPO by 2028 with a secondary listing in South Africa. In June 2025 it was named to TIME's 100 Most Influential Companies, and in July 2026 GoTyme Bank was named Best Digital Bank for Consumers across its markets by Euromoney.