Sao Paulo, Brazil – Digital financial services platforms Nubank has announced that it has invested US$150m with Tyme Group, and served as the lead of Tyme Group’s series D funding round. With this, the total investment round amounted to US$250m, with M&G Catalyst Fund subscribing for US$50m and existing shareholders with further US$50m. Moreover, Nubank also becomes a minority shareholder in Tyme Group. The investment now also makes Tyme Group reach unicorn status, having a valuation of US$1.5b.
With the objective of offering an affordable banking solution and maintaining a lower cost structure than traditional banks, Tyme Group has reached more than 15 million customers.
The bank specialises in emerging markets populations and, besides South Africa and the Philippines, it has a global headquarters in Singapore and a development hub in Vietnam, where it plans to open its next operation.
David Vélez, founder and CEO of Nubank, said, “Since the beginning of Nubank, we have believed that the future of financial services globally is of digitally-native companies. We have met dozens of teams across different geographies, and we think that Tyme Group is extremely well-positioned to be one of the digital bank leaders in Africa and South East Asia. We are excited to work with Tyme to share many of our learnings of scaling this model to hundreds of millions of customers.”
Meanwhile, Coen Jonker, Chairman and co-Founder of Tyme, commented, “Nubank revolutionized financial services and having them as a shareholder will help build rapport to our model, execution and expansion plans, both financially and through business counsel. We are focused on improving the financial lives of millions of people in our region, and we are energized by this round of investments to keep pushing forward.”
