“The UK's development finance institution, deploying growth capital, debt, and guarantees to democratise access to financial services and other essential infrastructure across Africa and South Asia.”
British International Investment (BII) is the UK government's development finance institution, deploying capital across emerging markets with a stated focus on improving accessibility, affordability, and relevance of financial products for underserved retail customers. BII has invested twice in TymeBank (South Africa), most recently backing growth capital in both Tyme South Africa and GoTyme Philippines, and separately backed Moniepoint alongside Norrsken22 and DPI.
BII operates through three portfolios internally described as Growth, Catalyst, and Kinetic, and deploys capital as equity, debt, and guarantees rather than a single instrument type. The Tyme investments illustrate the Growth portfolio's approach: equity tickets in the $18M-$20M range for fintech players with established retail traction, alongside active board-level involvement on credit underwriting, customer protection, and international expansion.
BII's African financial services portfolio extends well beyond neobanks; the firm is one of the largest DFI investors on the continent across banking, insurance, and infrastructure.