Discovery Bank’s next growth phase is centred on evolving beyond retail banking, as the digital player repositions into a fully-integrated “super app” that sits at the centre of a broader financial and lifestyle ecosystem.
Since launch in 2019, Discovery Bank’s strategy has unfolded in two phases, beginning with aligning its profitability with improving customers’ financial health and well-being, and now transitioning into full ecosystem integration.
According to Discovery Bank CEO Hylton Kallner, the bank’s strategic shift is about collapsing traditional product silos and creating a single, unified platform that embeds banking within a broader scope of integrated services, spanning health, insurance, investments and lifestyle services.
Kallner explains that the bank has moved to position its mobile app as the primary gateway into the broader Discovery Group ecosystem.
“We are integrating the entire Discovery ecosystem into the Discovery Bank app. When we began the process in late 2025, the results were immediate, with significant increases in client engagement across health, life and insurance products,” he says. “People use the Discovery Bank app every day, making it the primary digital channel for all Discovery products.”
Discovery Group is a diversified financial services organisation that encompasses a health medical scheme, long-term insurance, investment products, a travel booking platform and a wellness programme, among others.
This integration of these services is transforming the app into more than a financial tool; instead, it is becoming a centralised platform where clients manage their entire financial and lifestyle portfolio, notes Kallner.
In SA’s digital banking space, competitors such as TymeBank, now known as GoTyme Bank, and Bank Zero have emerged as significant challengers.
As of March 2026, GoTyme reported over 12 million customers, while Bank Zero has set a target to gain 100 000 new customers by 2027.
Together, these banks are driving a new era of digital-first financial services in SA.
AI becomes core to banking
SA’s major banks recently told ITWeb they are entering a new phase in their artificial intelligence (AI) journey in 2026, shifting from pilot projects and isolated experiments, to large-scale deployment across core operations.
After years of testing machine learning and data-driven tools, the banks are now accelerating investment and integration of AI into fraud detection, customer service, risk management and digital platforms, signalling the technology is becoming central to competitiveness in the financial sector.
Similarly, AI is playing a central role in enabling Discovery Bank’s super app vision, underpinning personalisation, security and behavioural incentives, according to Kallner.
He describes AI as embedded across customer-facing and operational layers of the app. One of the most visible implementations is Discovery AI, which functions as a virtual financial assistant, providing real-time insights into customer spending and financial behaviour.
“Our Discovery AI tool acts as a virtual financial analyst and private banker, giving clients instant insights into their finances. Clients can ask simple questions about their spending and receive personalised, real-time answers,” he points out.
AI is deeply integrated into the bank’s behavioural model. By leveraging decades of customer behavioural data, the bank can actively influence customer decisions through targeted nudges and incentives, it says.
“AI allows us to personalise the Vitality Money programme at scale. By analysing spending patterns, we can guide clients toward better financial decisions, creating a continuous feedback loop where behaviour improves over time,” Kallner explains.
Security is another critical domain where AI is deployed extensively, as Discovery Bank’s Trust Alert system uses machine learning to analyse transactions in real-time, identifying anomalies and stopping potential fraud before it occurs.
“These systems continuously analyse transaction patterns at an individual level. When something deviates from a client’s normal behaviour, the system issues a real-time alert, allowing intervention before fraud happens,” he adds.
Next on the agenda
As Discovery Bank scales its super app model, its next phase of growth is anchored in deepening integration, expanding digital capabilities and accelerating customer acquisition, Kallner comments.
In its latest financial report for the six-month period ended 31 December, Discovery reported that the digital bank’s profit rose by between R210 million and R230 million, compared with a loss of R145 million in the prior period.
Discovery Bank exceeded expectations, with client acquisition accelerating to an average of around 1 500 new customers per day by the end of the reporting period, said the company at the time. The digital bank says it currently has 1.4 million clients.
Kallner tells ITWeb that expanding its digital banking capabilities and product suite will propel the bank to meet its financial targets.
“We aim to grow the bank’s operating profit by R400 million a year, with an ambition to reach R3 billion in profit and three million clients by FY2029. This will be driven by expanding our product suite, enhancing digital capabilities and scaling our client base.”
A significant proportion of newly on-boarded customers are new to the broader Discovery ecosystem, creating cross-sell opportunities.
“About 70% of new account-holders now come to Discovery Bank without any other Discovery product. This presents a massive opportunity to introduce clients to our integrated insurance and investment offerings.”
Discovery Bank’s competitive positioning is increasingly defined by its ability to combine banking with a deep data intelligence layer, Kallner points out.
Unlike traditional banks that operate in product silos, the super app model creates compounding value as clients engage across multiple services.
Underpinning this is access to more than 30 years of behavioural data across health, financial and lifestyle dimensions. This enables a level of personalisation and risk insight that provides a sustainable, competitive advantage, he states.
“Our model is not just about offering banking products. It is about creating a system where clients are rewarded for improving their financial and physical health, with benefits extending across the entire ecosystem,” Kallner notes.
“This creates a level of engagement and retention that traditional models cannot replicate. Clients manage their finances, health, travel and investments in one place, with access to both human and AI-driven support.”
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