A new banking heavyweight? Motsepe’s GoTyme takes aim at Capitec’s crown

Johannesburg – GoTyme Bank is targeting 30 million customers by 2036 as it steps up its challenge to Capitec for dominance of South Africa’s retail banking market.

The digital bank, backed by billionaire Patrice Motsepe’s African Rainbow Capital Investments, currently has approximately 13 million customers, making it South Africa’s second-largest bank by customer numbers, according to a report by Bloomberg, published through Moneyweb.

Chief executive Cheslyn Jacobs said the bank wanted to reach half of South Africa’s population as customers.

“I want us to get to one in two South Africans as customers,” Jacobs said in an interview with Bloomberg.

The ambition puts GoTyme in direct competition with Capitec, which had more than 26.6 million personal and business clients as at 31 August 2026.

A major part of GoTyme’s expansion strategy is its partnership with financial services group Sanlam, which is expected to enable both companies to expand their banking, lending and insurance offerings from next year.

Jacobs said the partnership would allow GoTyme to market Sanlam’s banking products to its nine million customers, while Sanlam could offer GoTyme’s insurance products to its 13 million customers.

“It’s a win-win relationship for both businesses,” he said.

According to Bloomberg, Sanlam expects to attract between two million and four million banking customers by 2030, while growing its loan book to R10 billion from R6 billion in 2025.

GoTyme is also monitoring competition from retail group Pepkor, which is preparing to launch its own independent lender, potentially as early as next year.

The retailer plans to leverage its more than 6,000 South African stores and extensive smartphone distribution network to expand into financial services.

Meanwhile, GoTyme’s growth has been supported by increasing adoption of digital banking and payments.

ITWeb reported that the bank’s net customer advances increased by 126% to R5.08 billion, while deposits grew by 27% to R9.69 billion.

The bank is also preparing to introduce credit cards, expand its MoreTyme buy-now-pay-later offering and increase personal lending through its Sanlam partnership.

The Citizen reported that GoTyme’s customer base had surpassed 13 million, with the bank planning further expansion into investment products, rewards and digital payments.

Despite its ambitious growth targets, GoTyme is also working towards a future stock market listing. Jacobs said market conditions would determine the timing and valuation, although the bank was targeting a valuation exceeding $15 billion.

He indicated that the business could be ready to list within three to five years, provided it continued meeting its growth targets.

GoTyme, which launched in South Africa in 2019 as TymeBank before rebranding, is backed by African Rainbow Capital Investments and international investors including Tencent.

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