South African JUMO closes $120 M funding round led by Fidelity
JUMO, a South African and UK-based technology company, building next-generation financial services for emerging market entrepreneurs, has announced on Monday that it secured $120 million from new and existing investors.
The investment was led by Fidelity Management & Research Company, LLC, marking its first investment in an emerging markets fintech company. Visa and the UK-based Kingsway Capital also participated in the funding round.
The latest funding will be used to support the scaling of JUMO’s platform capacity, enabling the company to evolve its services and increase the number of financial products on offer to SMEs, as well as providing longer term lending options for merchants and bigger businesses.
The funds will also go towards JUMO’s international expansion in new markets such as Nigeria and Cameroon.
Andrew Watkins-Ball, JUMO’s founder and CEO, said: “It’s exciting to be part of the wave of US capital being invested in payments and fintech on the continent – there are some great businesses being built and we are proud to play a role supporting capital providers to reach customers with great products.”
The latest round brings JUMO’s total funds raised so far to around $200 million. Prior investment rounds have included Leapfrog, Goldman Sachs, Finnfund, Proparco, Vostok Emerging Finance and Brook Asset Management.
Founded in 2015, JUMO is a banking-as-a-service platform that uses AI to power financial services in emerging markets. It offers savings and credit products to entrepreneurs in emerging markets, as well as financial services infrastructure to partners such as eMoney operators, mobile fintech platforms and banks.
Based in London, JUMO has built a platform that enables banks to reach millions of new customers with credit and savings products.
The company says it is focused on making it easier for capital providers to be able to reach new customers at affordable prices whilst making predictable returns.
The platform provides a range of infrastructure and services that banks need to operate, from core banking to underwriting, KYC (know your customer) and fraud detection services.
“JUMO’s lending platform is highly attractive in its ability to scale across markets and drive financial inclusion by creating access to credit for consumers and small businesses,” said Melissa McSherry, global head of risk and identity services at Visa.
JUMO claims its platform has been used to make about 120 million loans, totalling $3.5 billion, to more than 18 million people and small businesses in Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Côte d’Ivoire and Pakistan.