GoTyme says 13 million clients make it SA's second-biggest bank by headcount, but about eight million are active

GoTyme Bank, the digital lender controlled by Patrice Motsepe's African Rainbow Capital Investments, now has 13 million clients in South Africa. That makes it the country's second-biggest bank by customer count, Bloomberg reported on 3 November after an interview with chief executive Cheslyn Jacobs. Only Capitec, with more than 26.6 million personal and business clients at 31 August, is larger on that measure.

The headline number needs a qualifier. GoTyme told ITWeb last week that it has just over eight million monthly active customers, and in May TechCentral reported, citing the bank's own figures, that 20% of its 13 million accounts were dormant. Counting accounts flatters any bank that signs people up quickly. Counting active users is the measure GoTyme itself uses for its next target: it wants to be South Africa's third-largest bank by monthly active users in the first quarter of 2027.

Those three figures are not one statistic restated. Thirteen million is the client count Bloomberg reported from Jacobs on 3 November, the number that puts GoTyme second to Capitec on headcount. Just over eight million is the monthly active count GoTyme gave ITWeb the week before. The 20% dormant share is a May figure, from the bank via TechCentral, applied to the same 13 million accounts. A dormant share from May and a monthly-active count from late October are different dates and different definitions. The gap the bank has already put on the record is the one between 13 million clients and about eight million people using it in a month.

Capitec's 26.6 million is personal and business clients at 31 August. It is more than twice GoTyme's 13 million. Second place on a headcount list is not second place on monthly use, which is why Jacobs's own 2027 target is framed in active users, not in accounts opened.

What Jacobs told Bloomberg

GoTyme is targeting 30 million South African clients by 2036. "I want us to get to one in two South Africans as customers," Jacobs said.

Thirty million by 2036 is a client target, the same kind of count as the 13 million. It is not a monthly-active target. The active-user ambition he has dated is narrower and sooner: third-largest bank by monthly active users in the first quarter of 2027. The two deadlines should not be folded into one plan. One is a decade-long headcount. The other is a ranking, on a different measure, due in early 2027.

The wider group, which also operates in the Philippines, has more than 23 million customers and signs about 400,000 new clients a month. Bloomberg did not give a South African split of that figure. The 400,000 is a group signup rate. It is not a South African one, and it is not a count of how many of those signups are still active a month later.

The bank became Africa's first profitable standalone digital bank this year, according to the report, though no profit figure was given. ITWeb reported total income of R2.72 billion, up 25%. Income is not profit. The "first profitable" line and the R2.72 billion are both in the coverage, and neither comes with a rand profit.

A listing, eventually

GoTyme's global operations were valued at $1.5 billion in 2024, after a round that included $150 million from Nu Holdings, the Brazilian digital bank. Tencent is also an investor. Jacobs would not give a current valuation, but said the bank's watermark for a listing is a valuation above $15 billion, and that it will "probably be ready in three to five years", depending on markets. "The business has to be in a certain state before you do a listing," he said.

The $1.5 billion is a 2024 figure, not a price he would repeat. The $15 billion is a threshold he named for a listing, not a valuation he claims the bank has reached. Three to five years is his range, and he tied it to markets and to the state of the business. There is no timetable more precise than that in the interview.

The competition is moving too

GoTyme's growth plan leans on its partnership with Sanlam. From as soon as next year, both firms will be able to take deposits, offer unsecured personal loans and sell life cover. Sanlam has 9 million customers, expects 2 million to 4 million banking clients by 2030, and expects its loan book to grow to R10 billion from R6 billion in 2025.

"As soon as next year" is the earliest the coverage gives for that shared product set. It is not a launch date. Sanlam's 2 million to 4 million banking clients by 2030 is Sanlam's expectation, not a GoTyme client count, and the loan-book path from R6 billion to R10 billion is Sanlam's.

The market GoTyme is chasing is getting more crowded. Pepkor is preparing to launch an independent lender as early as next year, using its more than 6,000 South African stores, and Capitec remains more than twice GoTyme's size by clients. Pepkor's plan, like the Sanlam banking book, is still a preparation. The 6,000 stores are the distribution Pepkor already has. They are not a client total.

What is still open

GoTyme has not published a profit figure for its first profitable year, a current valuation or the share of its 13 million clients who use the bank as their main account. The gap between 13 million accounts and about eight million monthly users is the number to watch when it next reports. Its own deadline for third place by active users is the first quarter of 2027. Until then, second-biggest by headcount and about eight million monthly users are both true descriptions of different counts, and neither is a profit.