TymeBank: How Digital Banks Gain Marketshare

Every month, I analyse viral products, the people and the strategies behind them. Today, we’re diving into the incredible story of one of South Africa’s digital banks: TymeBank (Take Your Money Everywhere).

Table of Contents

• TymeBank: How Digital Banks Gain Marketshare

  • Origin Story

  • MTN, Deloitte and Mobile Money

• Part 2: TymeBank’s Growth Levers

  • TymeBank and Distribution

  • Pick ‘n Pay and Boxer Stores 

  • The Foschini Group Partnership 

  • Onboarding 

  • Customer Acquisition Costs

  • TymeBank’s Core Value Proposition

  • Target Personas 

  • Messaging 

  • The TymeBank Ecosystem 

Origin Story

Around 2000, while reading the work of Hernando de Soto, Coen Jonker was possessed with an impossible idea - he wanted to make banking in South Africa inclusive.

But Coen was a lawyer by trade and in 2000, he was the CEO at Edward Nathan Corporate Law Advisers (now ENS Africa’s largest law firm). 

He had no experience in banking and little idea how to turn his idea into a reality. 

Could he learn the ins and outs of banking?

The answer was yes, in the right environment.

So he convinced Sim Tshabalala, CEO of Standard Bank to take a chance on him. 

And while working at Standard Bank as Director of Community Banking, his team piloted digital banking initiatives that would become the foundation for Tyme.

But at Standard Bank, he learned a surprising lesson, “Banking is the second most regulated industry in the world.” He said, “Banks can be incrementally innovative, but not radically innovative under the same regulation licence.”

In other words, if he wanted to banking accessible, he would need to do it outside of traditional banks.

MTN, Deloitte and Mobile Money

In 2011, MTN, Africa’s largest telecom, partnered with Deloitte to explore a similar community banking offering.

At this point, the South African Mobile Money market was growing quickly.

Now, MTN saw an opportunity to expand the local remittance market which was booming across the African continent and they partnered with Deloitte to capitalise on opportunities. 

Coen Jonker and Tjaart van der Walt, as partners in Deloitte’s Innovation and Strategy Division, were selected by Deloitte to head these efforts. 

MTN wanted to adapt the African Mobile Remittance Market in South Africa, but needed to keep operational costs low.

So they partnered with Pick ‘n Pay and Boxer stores - essentially, TymeBank was a low-income solution to replicate African mobile money booths as kiosks in-store. 

TymeBank had the core infrastructure of a bank at this point, and applied for a banking licence.

And in 2017, while they waited for banking approval, TymeBank signed a decade-long agreement with Pick ‘n Pay. However, MTN felt that TymeBank lacked commercial viability and withdrew their support from the fintech. 

Then in 2018, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, TymeBank’s majority shareholder, decided to divest TymeBank and redirect investments towards its home region. 

Coen and his leadership team saw an opportunity and partnered with ARC (African Rainbow Capital - owned by billionaire Patrice Motsepe) to acquire Commbank’s 90% stake as well as secure a 10% direct investment from ARC. 

And now almost a decade later, TymeBank has 9 Million users. So, let’s talk about their strategies.

Part 2: TymeBank’s Growth Levers

TymeBank’s growth levers include:

1. Distribution/ Accessibility

2. Innovative Products

3. Affordability/ Pricing

4. Target Market Segmentation (“banking the unbanked”)

Here’s a quick summary:

Let’s talk about distribution, which is arguably TymeBank’s most disruptive lever: