It’s About Tyme

Banking beyond borders

By Adrian Saville and Bruce Whitfield

Imagine beginning with a bold mission in 2012: to achieve financial inclusion through a multi-country bank. Within a decade, that vision became one of the fastest-growing fintechs in the world. The remarkable journey of It’s About Tyme captures this evolution.

Now, picture starting this business in South Africa, a country the IMF ranked as the hardest place to do business among 49 surveyed nations. The founders had the foresight to partner with a family-owned food retailer. This partnership helped establish a low-cost, physical banking footprint. Such success did not go unnoticed.

A story of resilience and renewal unfolds

One of the world’s largest banks acquired the company. However, a clash of cultures soon followed, and four years later, came the divestment. Despite the risks, one of South Africa’s wealthiest entrepreneurs stepped in to take control.

Then came COVID-19. The business nearly collapsed. Shareholders demanded that a successor of their choice be trained. A frantic 217 pitches for new capital produced no success. Yet, at the eleventh hour, there was a reprieve when one investor and then another stepped up. This dramatic story of resilience and renewal unfolds in the pages of It’s About Tyme, a chronicle of courage and persistence.

Now imagine launching in the Philippines. The company replicated and refined what worked in South Africa while designing an entirely new cloud-based banking stack. Over 500 Vietnamese developers joined the effort.

Courage and audacity

The leadership team came from Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Vietnam, the Philippines, Australia, India and Zimbabwe. They built a culture where failure fueled growth and audacity became the norm. Each new challenge reaffirmed the bold spirit that defines It’s About Tyme.

Eventually, the company became a global poster child for AI in banking. In June 2025, an email arrived confirming its inclusion among Time magazine’s Top 100 most influential companies in the world.

As Roger Grobler, a long-standing investor in Tyme, puts it, “Courage and audacity are not just bold strategies. They are the safest. Because playing it safe is, ironically, the riskiest thing you can do.”

About the authors

Adrian Saville is a professor of economics, finance, and strategy at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS). He spent two decades building and leading an investment firm before founding Boundless World, a strategic advisory practice. The firm focuses on capital markets, growth models and business transformation.

Bruce Whitfield is a bestselling author, business speaker and broadcaster. He interprets the noise at the intersection where business, politics and society collide. His clear perspective and ability to simplify complex ideas illuminate how we can fix the future, starting today. Bruce is an award-winning journalist whose daily Money Show on 702 and CapeTalk is essential listening for anyone seeking to understand money and business. His podcasts regularly top listenership charts. Genius is his second book, following The Upside of Down (2020), which explores how chaos and uncertainty create opportunity.