How Word-of-Mouth Built South Africa's First Black-Owned Unicorn Bank

Episode notes

In this episode of The Issuer Academy podcast, host Merusha Naidu is joined by Rohit Subramanian, Chief Strategy Officer at TymeBank, and Jeff Parker, CEO of Paymentology. Together, they explore how TymeBank became South Africa's first black-owned digital bank to achieve unicorn status. What You’ll Learn: How TymeBank's hybrid phygital model with retail kiosks revolutionised customer onboarding in South Africa Why building trust through word-of-mouth and customer experience proved more powerful than traditional marketing The critical balance between innovation and financial inclusion in emerging markets How to maintain resilience during the "fintech winter" by focusing on core products and profitability Why successful scaling requires both bold innovation and patience with market readiness How to build a unicorn while staying true to your mission of financial inclusion Rohit Subramanian is the Chief Strategy Officer at TymeBank, South Africa's first black-owned digital bank to achieve unicorn status.