The foundations for GOtyme's future success in the Philippines have been strengthened with the completion of the Series B funding for Tyme, the Gokongwei Group's partner in the new digital banking venture launching in the third quarter of 2022.
Tyme, one of the fastest-growing digital banking groups globally, has successfully secured investments from Tencent Holdings Ltd., a China-based tech conglomerate, and the CDC Group, an investment firm backed by the United Kingdom, which brings its Series B capital raise total to US$180 million.
The investment from Tencent and CDC is pegged at US$70 million, adding to the US$110 million already secured from other global investors, including JG Summit Holding’s venture capital firm, JG Digital Equity Ventures, in the first quarter of 2021.
Tyme is using the capital raise to fund and grow TymeBank in South Africa and to fund GOtyme in the Philippines and its possible subsequent international expansion.
In South Africa, the investments will enable Tyme to use its digital infrastructure to accelerate the rollout of financial services to TymeBank’s mass market customer base. Meanwhile, the capital and expertise from the two new investors will also be used to improve Tyme’s ability to manage risk and support Tyme’s expansion into markets where CDC has a presence.
TymeBank has acquired four million customers in just 32 months, with noticeable acceleration in its acquisition rate. The hybrid model of digital banking and physical service has made banking accessible to South Africans across the economic spectrum.
Here in the Philippines, GOtyme was one of the six “neobanks” (or digital-only banks) to secure approval from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, getting the go-ahead in August 2021. Leveraging on the vast ecosystem of the Gokongwei Group, the growth strategy is to embed banking in people’s everyday lives, making it an integral part of their shopping and business experiences. GOtyme is bidding to make financial services accessible to all Filipino consumers, particularly important in a country where the unbanked population stands at over 70%. The build phase is currently underway, and GOtyme is on track to launch in the third quarter of 2022.
Speaking about the fresh capital infusion, Coen Jonker, co-founder of Tyme, commented: “This is a very welcome investment from Tencent and CDC. It is a clear vote of confidence in our digital banking offering as well as our leadership teams in South Africa, Singapore, and the Philippines.
“Tyme’s global footprint now includes a product development and engineering hub in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam, and banking businesses in South Africa and the Philippines. We have successfully attracted a team of skilled people, which includes over two hundred engineers, and established strategy, business development, data, analytics and artificial intelligence functions in our global headquarters in Singapore.”
On this development, GOtyme president and CEO Jojo Malolos said, “This huge news on the investment of Tencent and CDC into Tyme augurs well for Gotyme as we pursue the common vision of bringing the underbanked and unbanked into mainstream financial services in the Philippines. We are excited to roll out GOtyme as our game-changing way of democratizing finance in the country while fulfilling the Gokongwei Group's purpose – that of having an unrelenting commitment to provide our customers with better choices and creating shared success with our stakeholders.”
