Access to turnover-based financing for small business owners is one of the new offerings from TymeBank following its acquisition of Retail Capital, which finances fintech SMEs.
Other new offerings include a mobile app for retail outlets and a world-class financial community platform.
Retail Capital is an award-winning fintech company providing financing to small and medium-sized businesses in South Africa. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval, and if the deal goes through, Retail Capital will become a division of TymeBank and the backbone of the digital bank’s expanded business banking offering.
The agreement will combine Retail Capital’s financing expertise and TymeBank’s deposit base and operations to serve a broader customer base. TymeBank believes it is important to be able to effectively channel finance to business owners in South Africa in order to expand the historically underserved small business sector.
“This acquisition will allow TymeBank to expand its offering for entrepreneurs to include working capital financing. Retail capital has gained considerable experience in risk management over the past decade and through various economic cycles. They have an experienced team, and their risk models and operational processes are battle-tested and largely optimized for small business financing,” says Cohen Yonker, CEO of TymeBank.
“Together, we look forward to providing access to innovative solutions to ensure that business owners can drive growth, create jobs and contribute to the wider economy.”
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Small business offers
He says both entities have a lot to offer with an evolving set of digital solutions that make doing business easier in a challenging environment. TymeBank’s current banking offerings, which already have more than 100,000 customers, include a transactional business account that can be opened in less than five minutes, zero monthly bank fees, free debit card and online shopping transactions and free bulk payments.
Retail Capital lowers the barriers to financing for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with an easy three-step online application process. Over the past 10 years, Retail Capital has already provided more than R5.5 billion in working capital to more than 43,000 business owners in South Africa, making it the largest SME financier of its kind in the sector.
Over the past five years, Retail Capital has established itself as an award-winning fintech partner that provides businesses with instant access to financing through built-in solutions. Retail Capital will continue to support the economy through innovative financing technologies and strong partnerships.
These two businesses are also economically complementary and complementary. Retail Capital products for small businesses require a flexible source of low-cost capital, which TymeBank’s deposit base can provide.
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Retail equity and small business financing
“Retail Capital has a long history of supporting SMEs by giving them access to affordable financing that helps their businesses grow. Now, with this acquisition of TymeBank, we will be able to scale our offering, empowering SMEs to expand with financing that works on their terms,” says Karl Westvig, CEO of Retail Capital.
“Retail Capital already supports many of the industry’s leading acquiring, retail and payments partners to support its SME customers. The tie-up with TymeBank will further enhance this offering to our partners’ customers.”
Westvig says Retail Capital and TymeBank have their customers’ best interests at heart and see this strategic move as a positive one that will greatly help all business owners in South Africa. With its digital banking presence in several countries, Tyme Group will also allow Retail Capital to expand into other markets.
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New offers
- TymePOS, a mobile point-of-sale application that turns an NFC-enabled mobile phone into a seamless payment device. As a softpos solution, TymePOS offers the best pricing on the market for merchants of this size. It also has market-leading next-day settlements for merchants, while the industry standard is seven days. The app is available to download from the Google Play Store and it takes just two minutes for a TymeBank Business Banking customer to install the app. Customers will then receive a merchant ID to begin processing card payments within 24 hours.
- TymeTrybe, a world-class financial community platform that provides business owners with a full range of business tools, accredited courses and other educational services, and access to networking opportunities. This will be a key feature of TymeBank’s enhanced business banking offering. The TymeTrybe platform was developed by Tribe Fintech, a global fintech company and partner of Tyme, which has secured partnerships with several prominent organizations, including global technology giant Meta, Wits Business School, BrownSense and SMEasy as platform members.
“It’s great to know that forward-thinking banks like TymeBank, along with our partners like Meta, Wits and SMEasy, share our vision for a more holistic view of the amazing people at the heart of our business communities. This is an important step in our journey to create community-driven B2B banking for every size and type of SME worldwide,” said Mo Harvey, Founder and CEO of Tribe Fintech.
An innovative e-commerce web application that allows small merchants to easily sell their wares on Facebook and Instagram is also in the pipeline, along with a delivery service that will be included in the aptly named ‘SellOnSocial’ offering.
Yonker says South Africa’s small business sector is vital to economic development and job creation and deserves all the help it can get, especially given the enormous difficulties of the past few years.
