The biggest startup funding rounds in South Africa are led by a handful of fintechs. Tyme Group’s $250 million Series D in December 2024 is the largest we could verify, and it is a long way clear of the next.
Below are the seven largest disclosed rounds, ranked by size, each tied to a dated announcement you can read yourself. This is a list of rounds, not of companies, so one company can appear twice.
The seven biggest rounds
| # | Company | Round | Announced | Who and what |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tyme Group (TymeBank) | $250m Series D | December 2024 | Led by Nubank, which put in $150m; M&G Catalyst Fund $50m. Valued at $1.5bn. Source |
| 2 | JUMO | $120m | November 2021 | Led by Fidelity; Visa and Kingsway Capital took part. Valued at $400m. Equity. Source |
| 3 | Planet42 | $100m, debt and equity | February 2023 | $15m of it equity, co-led by Naspers and ARS Holdings; $75m was a lending facility from Rivonia Road Capital. Source |
| 4 | Yoco | $83m Series C | 2021 | Backed by Dragoneer. Yoco makes card machines and payments software for small businesses. Source |
| 5 | TymeBank | $77.8m pre-Series C | July 2024 | Co-led by Norrsken22 and Blue Earth Capital, with existing investor Tencent. Took TymeBank’s total capital to over $260m. Source |
| 6 | Stitch | $55m Series B | April 2025 | Led by QED Investors, with Norrsken22, Flourish Ventures and Glynn Capital. Stitch says its total funding is now $107m. Source |
| 7 | VALR | $50m Series B | March 2022 | Led by Pantera Capital. Valued at $240m and described as Africa’s largest crypto raise at the time. Source |
What the list shows
Six of the seven are financial technology: digital banking, lending, payments and crypto. The exception is Planet42, a car subscription business, and its headline figure is mostly debt, which is why it is marked. If you take only equity, Planet42 would fall off the list.
Tyme’s two rounds show how a single company can dominate a ranking of rounds. Its $250 million Series D was led by Nubank, and it came five months after the $77.8 million round that took its total capital raised to over $260 million. For a wider view of how money moves in this market, see our South Africa markets dashboard and our guide to government funding for small businesses.
How we ranked this
- By round size, in US dollars as announced. We did not convert to rand, because the rate on the day differs from today’s.
- Not by total funding. Databases disagree badly on totals. One puts TymeBank near $341 million and another far higher; Yoco appears at $107 million in some places and $177 million in others. A round is a dated event with a source, so it can be checked.
- Only rounds we could tie to a company or press announcement. Acquisitions, listings and undisclosed rounds are left out.
- Debt is flagged. Where a headline mixes debt and equity, the row says so.
If a company should be here and we have missed it, or a figure is wrong, tell us at the address on our contact page and we will check it and correct the list. We will update this ranking whenever a larger round is announced.
