The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 2017–2021
TymeBank reached 10 million customers with kiosks in supermarkets instead of bank branches
South Africa's branchless bank opens accounts in minutes at Pick n Pay kiosks, cutting fees to near zero and onboarding millions.
TymeBank
the move
TymeBank was licensed in South Africa in 2017 and launched its retail rollout in February 2019, positioning itself as the country's first fully licensed digital-only retail bank. Its insight: banking is reliable for the middle class but costly and time-consuming for everyone else.
Instead of branches, TymeBank placed smart kiosks inside Pick n Pay and Boxer stores; opening an account takes minutes, requires no paperwork, and the core account has no monthly fee. By February 2021 the bank reported about 2.8 million customers, on track to reach 3 million.
The no-branch model helped TymeBank raise R1.6 billion (~$109 million) in 2021 from Apis Growth Fund II and JG Summit, one of the largest raises for a digital bank on the continent; CEO Tauriq Keraan credited investor belief in serving underbanked customers with low, transparent fees.
why it works
- Kiosks in stores use traffic that already exists.
- No branch estate means near-zero account fees.
- Minutes-long onboarding beats queues and paperwork.
- Retail partners add trust in mass markets.
what transfers
Don't make customers come to a branch you pay to build: put the service inside a place they already visit and automate the onboarding. Distribution, not product, is the moat for mass-market banking.
what came after
TymeBank kept compounding, reporting 10.7 million customers by December 2024 and 11.6 million with R7.7 billion in deposits by mid-2025, and the kiosk-plus-digital model was replicated through the group's GoTyme Bank in the Philippines.
references
- South African digital bank TymeBank lands $109M from UK and Philippines investors
- TymeBank: The Digital Disruptor Democratizing Banking
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