Tekedia Capital made an additional investment in AjoMoney this month. Today, we are excited to announce that AjoMoney is now called Tyms Africa: “The new name Tyms Africa is from the word Times which can either mean multiple or period. Two months ago, we pushed out a sub-product using the name Tyms, which is the Tyms Microcredit powered by ROSCA for financially excluded Nigerians. We were able to communicate our solution and differentiate our offerings easily without the need to include the name ‘ajo'”.
The core business remains – and that is digitizing the rotating savings and credit association (ROSCA). Well done Ibrahim Adepoju and Chineye Ochem.
To learn more about Tyms, go here https://tyms.africa/ . For Tekedia Capital, here https://capital.tekedia.com/ .
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With this rebranding, the focus will now be on the great products instead of why ajo, not esusu, ego ozuzu, etc.
AjoMoney, a Nigerian Fintech founded in 2021 to digitize the rotating savings and credit association (ROSCA) which is also known as ajo or esusu or adashe in Nigeria has announced its ongoing rebranding across platforms and name changed to Tyms Africa.
AjoMoney has been a good name but it has limited us to just ajo in areas of sales, pivoting, expansion, customer relations, and better communicating our offering beyond the regular ajo. While ajo is a term used for ROSCA by the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria, it could also be referred to many other forms of savings beyond the community financing network.
We are building an alternative financing and credit platform by leveraging on the rotating savings and credit association (ROSCA) model to serve micro businesses in need of microcredit as well as SMEs, corporate employees, and even Africans in the Diaspora. We make it possible for them to leverage their community in a more modern and digital approach with data-driven membership decisions.
Over time, many couldn’t differentiate our solution from other brands whose names also contain the word ‘ajo’, until they took their time to consume our service, and this was making it difficult for a lot of people to understand our differentiation.
The new name Tyms Africa is from the word Times which can either mean multiple or period. Two months ago, we pushed out a sub-product using the name Tyms, which is the Tyms Microcredit powered by ROSCA for financially excluded Nigerians. We were able to communicate our solution and differentiate our offerings easily without the need to include the name ‘ajo’.
Also, our customers have experienced multiple growths (multiple) in their endeavours using our platform and we always come in when they need us the most (period).
So, we decided to go with a name that communicates our solution and customers’ experience, with enough flexibility to alternate the solution, introduce new products and also ease our local and international expansion.
With our ongoing expansion in Rwanda and Uganda. We also see the name as the best fit for our product.
Over the next month, Tyms Africa will extend the penetration of its inclusive microcredit solution powered by ROSCA to micro businesses (i.e mom and pop shops) who will be able to access burden-free short-term credit to scale their business without the need to submit a bank statement, no internet required and no collateral required. AsidesTyms Microcredit, Tyms ROSCA, which is the digital ajo or esusu for MSMEs and corporate employees have also been upgraded with full functionality, securities, and automation, making it possible for Africans at home and in the diaspora to collectively run a contribution without hassles.
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