Tjaart is a serial entrepreneur with over 25 years’ experience in digital financial services, software, and artificial intelligence.
In the 90s, he was Executive Director at the Foundation for Research Development (now the National Research Foundation) of South Africa, part of the founding team of a start-up bank, The Business Bank, and co-founder of the technology venture capital fund. Since 2000, Tjaart was a founding partner of CSense, a global AI software business. He and his partners sold CSense in 2011 to General Electric in the USA.
In June 2012, he founded the banking start-up Tyme with Coen Jonker, a close friend since their university years. In 2015 they sold Tyme to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. At the end of 2018, Coen and Tjaart bought back the Tyme business with the backing of Patrice Motsepe’s African Rainbow Capital. They have since launched two banks; TymeBank in South Africa & GoTyme Bank in the Philippines, with a third Tyme bank planned to be launched in Vietnam during 2024.
Tjaart is passionate about high-growth startups, and also invests in platforms and ventures that are led by inspiring and courageous founders.
Tjaart holds a doctorate in Chemical Engineering and obtained a BCom Accounting degree. His research focused on the development of new artificial intelligence algorithms. He had published widely on the subject of AI in leading subject journals in the early 90s.