GoTyme Bank to make 2,000 employees shareholders amid global expansion

GoTyme Bank, the digital lender supported by South African billionaire Patrice Motsepe, is granting ownership stakes to its 2,000 employees worldwide, making them shareholders in the African digital banking group.

The bank is making this change to increase employee dedication and ensure its staff is working towards the goals of Tyme Group, its parent company based in Singapore. Tyme Group operates digital banking businesses across South Africa and Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

By giving every employee company shares, the bank hopes to improve employee performance, reduce the number of employees leaving, and create a stronger sense of purpose as it expands into new countries. The bank believes that when employees have a financial stake in the company, they are more invested in its success.

Tyme Group is primarily owned by Patrice Motsepe’s African Rainbow Capital (ARC), which possesses a 40% share. Other investors include Nubank, a Latin American digital bank serving 110 million customers, which invested $150 million in Tyme’s Series D funding round.

Tyme Group’s shareholders include M&G’s Catalyst Fund, Tencent, British International Investment, and the Gokongwei Group. Africa Fig Tree, representing the founders and employees, was an existing shareholder, and the company recently announced plans to expand employee ownership to all staff.

GoTyme’s rapid growth supports expansion plans

Tyme Group’s decision to give ownership to all employees shows the company is doing well. They’ve raised almost $600 million and serve 15 million customers in their main markets. In South Africa, GoTyme (previously TymeBank) has reached over 10 million customers and became the first profitable digital bank in Africa in December 2023. At that time, less than 5% of new digital banks worldwide were profitable.

The bank, which officially launched to the public in 2019, built its growth on a high-tech, high-touch model that placed self-service kiosks inside Pick n Pay and Boxer stores, allowing customers to open accounts in under five minutes without visiting a traditional branch.

Similar read: TymeBank now GoTyme Bank in South Africa after regulatory approval

That model helped it reach millions of South Africans who had previously been excluded from the formal banking system.

The bank is now led by a new CEO, Cheslyn Jacobs, who took over in January 2026, the same month the TymeBank brand was officially retired and replaced with GoTyme Bank globally. “GoTyme Bank reflects who we are today and where we’re going next as part of a global banking group with a strong South African foundation,” Jacobs said at the time of the rebrand.

Making 2,000 employees shareholders serves as both a retention strategy and a declaration that those building the bank should directly benefit from its success.