Tyme Group
A digital banking group providing lower income consumers and small business owners in South Africa and the Philippines with affordable access to basic financial products and services.
A digital banking group providing lower income consumers and small business owners in South Africa and the Philippines with affordable access to basic financial products and services.
Key details
Key metrics
Globally, c. 1.4 billion adults are unbanked and have no access to formal financial services. While the majority of unbanked individuals reside in Emerging Markets, Africa (45% of population) and Asia (32% of population) have particularly high shares of unbanked individuals.4
In addition, the regions in which Tyme Group’s subsidiaries operate have relatively high levels of informal and vulnerable employment.
As a result, the unbanked are unable to take advantage of basic economic tools such as savings, credit, money transfers or insurance. This leaves them vulnerable to shocks such as job loss or unsuccessful harvests. Access to financial services enables them to protect their families, hedge against risks, and invest in their future.
Tyme Group is an emerging market-focused digital banking group providing lower income consumers and small business owners with affordable access to basic financial products and services in South Africa (via TymeBank) and the Philippines (via GoTyme).
Tyme Group tackles the challenges of financial inclusion in its markets by (1) providing consumers with improved physical access to financial services via its retail partnership model, (2) providing affordable access to financial services via its cost-leading offering enabling the inclusion of the lowest of income earners into the formal economy, and (3) developing trust in the financial system through an engagement model that is tailored the socio-economic challenges of its customer base.
BlueEarth and co-investor Apis Partners bring complementary expertise and support to Tyme to further develop its impact evaluation, measurement, and management framework, in particular the development and delivery of clear impact goals.
David Moore, Director of Funds and Co-Investments at BlueEarth, stated: “We invested in Tyme Group thanks to our long-standing partnership with Apis Partners who look to build on their mission to generate attractive commercial returns alongside key priorities of reduced inequalities and greater financial inclusion. BlueEarth is excited about backing Tyme’s innovative, retail partnership model which enables affordable access to first-class banking products to all consumers, including those most vulnerable or living in remote locations.”
