Digital-only bank TymeBank has signed up one million customers in nine months following its official launch at the end of February this year.
The bank made the announcement at its Rosebank offices this morning, while updating the public about the latest milestone as well as providing updates on future products and services.
Dr Patrice Motsepe’s investment holding company African Rainbow Capital (ARC) is the controlling shareholder of TymeBank. While it’s now standalone business, TymeBank made its start as fintech company seven years ago, managing mobile money for MTN.
The bank has now entered into a long-term strategic partnership with retail giant Pick n Pay and Boxer stores, where 780 kioks have been deployed to allow its customers to bank at these retailers throughout the country.
Speaking at the event this morning, Motsepe said TymeBank is all about technology. “To be able to reach a milestone of having one million clients is something to be proud of. The poor know when they get a good service and a quality service. Quality means it’s got to be world class; it’s got to be cheaper than competition; it must be reliable, compatible; it has to be consistent and add value.
“The excellent work and innovation at TymeBank and our competitiveness to provide banking services at the most competitive prices and most reliable services is something that all of us are proud of.
“We’ve reached a million today and we are confident that are many more millions to come,” Motsepe stated.
Dr Johan van Zyl, co-CEO of ARC, added: “Banking in SA is expensive but in TymeBank, we have a winner. Things are on track and we doing very well. We have high hopes and very high aspirations for this venture and we stand behind it as shareholders.”
TymeBank CEO Tauriq Keraan, who recently took over the chief executive post, also applauded the bank’s milestone, saying the partnership with Pick n Pay and Boxer stores has been massively valuable.
“The fact that our technology is hosted in the cloud brings a number of benefits, including elasticity, pay for what you use and leveraging a number of capabilities.
“Our operating model is one that is open that allows us to partner with other organisations to get access to assets that we don’t have to build.
“Nine months ago, we launched with a 100 000 customers, but as of today, we have onboarded one million customers. In terms of active customers, we have about 420 000 and we are quite pleased we have kept that run rate going.”
Responding to a question from the audience, Keraan indicated the bank aims to break-even by 2022, reaching three million customers during the same time.
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