One important fact we want to share is how Tiers came about. What is the story behind the company? Who are the people who work for the company? What problem does Tiers solve? We aim to answer these and other questions that may arise in this text.
The Beginning
The person who conceived the idea for Tiers, Jônatas, was born and raised in the countryside of southern Brazil in a humble farming family. He had a difficult childhood in many aspects, including access to education, leisure, housing and parental support. During his childhood and adolescence, he saw his parents going through countless difficulties, including having access to good banking services. Only one bank branch in his town provided very poor service and charged abusive fees.
Not to mention the small print and terms that nobody understood, it was and still is necessary to enter the branch through a revolving door with metal detectors. To face long, endless queues to be attended to. Sign several documents to withdraw money from your own bank account. Waiting three working days to receive money from a bank transfer. Abusive fees for any transaction, including keeping the account active, known as a “maintenance fee”, you’ll agree that this is an abuse.
Closing a bank account was much more difficult, time-consuming and bureaucratic than opening an account at a bank branch. What about customer service? Nonexistent. Once you entered the branch, you were instantly pre-judged by how you dressed and behaved. You were treated differently if you didn’t transact a certain amount of money. You waited longer in line, and some financial products, such as loans and better rates, were unavailable to your customer profile.
Seeing his parents experiencing these difficulties, Jônatas didn’t give up or resign himself to the reality in which he lived; on the contrary, it gave him the strength to seek better living and working conditions.
With a scholarship, he graduated from one of the best universities in Brazil. He gained space and recognition in the job market on his own merits. He has always worked in technology and banking. With more than 17 years of experience in the sector and after collaborating in developing the neobank of the third largest bank in Latin America, the creator of Tiers realised that traditional banks were a long way from offering quality service and customer care without distinction and fair rates.
So, with his knowledge of technology, he realised that he could design and build a totally digital bank so that all people could have equal access to the financial system, one that prioritised meeting customers’ needs, offering a complete service without paying more for it and in a way that was easy to use.
In this way, we can say that Tiers was born. Based on the bad banking experience of his parents and many other people he knew. As the next step in the project, it was time to plan, design, and develop, together with expert user experience designers and developers, all the functionalities in a simple way so that the user would have simple, easy, and practical usability. This period lasted around a year and a half until the app was launched with a team of 10 people. We decided to launch it where we can have the biggest impact on people: in Africa.
Tiers app
The first version you may use on your smartphone was built without investment. We’re proud of that because it emphasises our commitment to doing what we say we will do. It also demonstrates our resilience since obstacles or difficulties don’t distract us from our goals. Last but not least, we have integrity and passion; we are honest, ethical, and reliable. Above all, we are passionate about what we do.
Our ultimate goal is to bring you complete banking services, guided by your needs and always striving for the best banking experience we can offer. We look forward to building and sharing the next chapters of this story with our customers.
Countries we serve
Currently, Tiers is available in Kenya.
How to download the app
Access tiers.app and subscribe to be among the first to know when we launch the app.
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