JUMO, a fintech company based in South Africa, has raised $120 million
JUMO, a fintech company based in South Africa, has raised $120 million
New funding for JUMO, a South African and London-based company that provides financial services to entrepreneurs and businesses in the form of credit, has totaled $120 million in a new round of funding.
The round was led by Fidelity Management & Research Company, and it also included Visa and Kingsway Capital as participants.
With this funding, JUMO's total funding now exceeds $200 million, up from $52 million in 2018 and $55 million in 2020, respectively.
JUMO was founded in 2015 by Andrew Watkins-Ball. Individuals and small businesses can borrow and save money with it, which is its primary product. The company was selected to be a part of Google's Launchpad Accelerator in 2017, and it has grown significantly since then.
Visa's global Head of Risk and Identity Services, Melissa McSherry, expressed her company's excitement about the investment and expressed her company's interest in assisting JUMO in scaling their operations.
JUMO
Individuals and businesses can benefit from JUMO's core products, which include savings and credit. Additionally, it serves as an infrastructure provider for financial institutions such as banks, fintechs, and operators of electronic money.
According to the company's website, they use artificial intelligence and machine learning to generate accurate credit scores and recommend targeted financial products to individuals who do not have a formal financial identity, collateral, or credit history, as well as to individuals who do not have a formal financial identity, collateral, or credit history.
By utilizing the information provided by JUMO, financial institutions can provide tailored financial services to their customers that are both valuable and useful to them.
At the moment, their services are available in six African markets: Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Ivory Coast, and Pakistan in South Asia — as well as Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Ivory Coast, and Pakistan. Among the partners are MTN, Airtel, Tigo, Ecobank, Absa, Letshego, Mansa Bank, and Telenor, among others.
The company claims to have assisted nine million consumers across six African markets in 2018, and to have originated loans totaling over $700 million in that same year. They now claim to have distributed $3.5 billion to more than 18 million customers across all of their operating markets, granting up to 120 million individual loans in the course of their operations.
Planned activities in the future
It is planned that JUMO will use the additional funds to expand its operations in Nigeria and Cameroon. In accordance with JUMO's estimates, based on the current number of eMoney subscribers who have access to loans on its platform, the company has the potential to disburse $29 billion in loans annually. When the company expands into Nigeria and Cameroon in 2022, this figure is expected to reach $40 billion, according to the company.
The company also claims that it will use the investment to improve and broaden the range of financial products available to small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). Also planned is the provision of longer-term lending options to merchants and larger businesses.
The company's mission is to assist banks in achieving "predictable returns" by providing a comprehensive suite of infrastructure and services ranging from core banking to underwriting, KYC (know your customer) and fraud detection.
In a statement, Andrew Watkins-Ball, CEO of JUMO, expressed his delight at the investment and his pride in the company's achievements.
