• SA-founded TymeBank is now valued at over $1.5 billion.
• The new valuation follows a Series D funding round, where $250 million was secured.
• The digital bank’s parent company, Time Group, now serves a reported 15 million customers across South Africa and the Philippines.

Christmas has come early for Tyme Group, the Singapore-based parent company of locally founded fintech – TymeBank. This as it has completed its Series D funding round where $250 million was secured, which has in turn pushed the company’s valuation to $1.5 billion.

Of the $250 million, Nubank, which is considered to be Latin America’s largest fintech, announced an investment of $150 million in Tyme Group for a reported 10 percent stake. Making up the rest of the funding round where M&G Catalyst Fund subscribing for $50 million, while existing shareholders accounted for the remaining $50 million in funding that was raised.

“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,” noted David Vélez, founder and CEO of Nubank regarding the investment.

Following its rapid growth in recent years in South Africa, the digital-first bank as it calls itself has expanded into the Philippines to great success, and now commands a total user base of 15 million customers across all territories that it operates.

Having set up global headquarters in Singapore, Tyme Group is now getting a development hub in Vietnam up and running, where it plans to open its next operation.

“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,” added Coen Jonker, chairman and co-founder of Tyme.

As TechCrunch points out, this latest news will be music to the ear’s of Patrice Motsepe’s African Rainbow Capital (ARC), which retains a 40 percent stake in the fintech company.