has secured $250 million in a Series D round, increasing its valuation to $1.5 billion. The round was led by Nu Holdings, which owns Latin America’s most valuable fintech NuBank, which has invested $150 million for a 10% stake. Besides this, M&G Catalyst Fund invested $50 million while existing shareholders contributed to the remaining $50 million.
With this round, the total funding secured by the fintech unicorn to date accounts for nearly $600 million. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its development efforts.
Fintech specialising in emerging markets
Tyme Group was founded in 2019 by Coen Jonker and Clive Pintusewitz. It is a digital banking group aiming to revolutionise access to financial services by leveraging technology to serve underserved and unbanked populations, especially in emerging markets. Its mission is to provide affordable, simple, and accessible financial products to promote financial inclusion.
Tyme Group operates under a hybrid model that combines a customer-centric digital platform with physical experiences, delivered in partnership with nationwide retailers through digital kiosks and bank ambassadors. With the objective of offering an affordable banking solution and maintaining a lower cost structure than traditional banks, Tyme Group has reached more than 15 million customers.
Reportedly, Tyme is eyeing an IPO in New York by 2028 and plans for a secondary listing in South Africa.
Global presence
The company originated in South Africa, launching TymeBank, which became one of the fastest-growing digital banks globally, emphasising low fees and ease of use. It expanded its footprint to Asia with Tyme in the Philippines and partnerships in other regions. It has a global headquarters in Singapore and a development hub in Vietnam, where it plans to open its next operation.
“Nubank revolutionised financial services and having them as a shareholder will help build rapport to our model, execution, and expansion plans, both financially and through business counsel. We are focused on improving the financial lives of millions of people in our region, and we are energised by this round of investments to keep pushing forward,” said Coen Jonker, Chairman and co-Founder of Tyme.
“Since the beginning of Nubank, we have believed that the future of financial services globally is of digitally-native companies. We have met dozens of teams across different geographies, and we think that Tyme Group is extremely well-positioned to be one of the digital bank leaders in Africa and South East Asia. We are excited to work with Tyme to share many of our learnings of scaling this model to hundreds of millions of customers,” added David Vélez, founder and CEO of Nubank.
