Why GoTyme Bank Is Making Employees Shareholders As Part Of Its Next Growth Phase

GoTyme Bank has announced that its employees will now become shareholders in the business, a meaningful step as the bank moves into its next phase of growth.

The decision comes at a time when GoTyme is evolving beyond its early days as a challenger brand, following strong customer growth, a growing physical presence, and its recent move into profitability.

“At a certain point, you realise success shouldn’t sit in one place,” says Cheslyn Jacobs, CEO of GoTyme Bank.

“This business has been built by people who show up every day and make it work. Giving them a stake in what we’re building just feels right. It’s about shared ownership, shared responsibility, and shared success.”

It also comes as the bank continues to build real momentum.

More than one million South Africans have downloaded and migrated to the new GoTyme Bank app, including over 200,000 existing customers who hadn’t used the previous version at all.

At the same time, the bank has been quietly expanding its physical presence. Nearly 30 Customer Hubs are already up and running in retail centres across the country, with plans to grow that number to around 100.

Locally, GoTyme forms part of the broader Tyme Group, which now serves more than 21 million customers globally, including 13 million in South Africa alone.

For Jacobs, the move toward employee ownership goes beyond incentives.

“It says something about the kind of company we’re trying to build,” he explains.

“The people closest to our customers should feel personally invested in what happens next. That’s how you build something that lasts.”

The announcement also marks just how far the bank has come since launching seven years ago.

What started as a digital challenger bank has grown into one of the country’s largest digital banking platforms, recently reaching a major industry milestone as Africa’s first profitable digital bank.

“Becoming profitable showed us that the model works,” Jacobs says.

“Now it’s about the next phase, growing responsibly, earning trust, and making sure the people who helped build this business are part of where it goes next.”

Alongside its customer growth, GoTyme has continued investing in the basics that support long-term scale, from upgrading its banking app to rolling out more Customer Hubs, and more recently, introducing Apple Pay as part of its digital payments offering.

All of this is aimed at making banking simpler, more accessible, and more connected to how people actually live and transact.

“This next chapter is about building at scale without losing what made us different in the first place,” Jacobs adds. “There’s clearly an appetite in South Africa for a different kind of banking experience. The focus now is on growing in a way that keeps us close to our customers, and to the people behind the business.”