JUMO has raised $120 million in a fresh funding round. The fintech company which is based in South Africa and London, raised the funding in a round led by Fidelity Management & Research Company, marking Fidelity’s first investment in an African company.
Other participants in the funding round include fintech giant, Visa, and London-based investment management firm, Kingsway Capital.
This is coming one year after JUMO raised $55 million in an unspecified investment round, making its total funding raised to be over $200 million, both in equity and debt.
This is as a result of the backing it has received from top investors like Goldman Sachs, Brook Asset Management, Finnfund, Leapfrog and Proparco, since it was launched.
Also read, JUMO Empowers Asian and African Markets with Over $2.5 Billion, Eyes Nigeria, 2 Others
Speaking on the decision to invest in JUMO, Melissa McSherry, Visa’s global head of Risk and Identity Services, said, “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 in a statement.
“We are excited about our investment in JUMO and are looking forward to accelerating adoption of JUMO’s platform across markets and delivering on Visa’s mission of helping individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive.”
JUMO will use the investment to improve and increase its financial products and expand operations into Nigeria and Cameroon. In addition, it plans to offer merchants and bigger businesses long-term lending options.
JUMO was launched in 2015 by founder and CEO Andrew Watkins-Ball.
It uses AI to render financial services to entrepreneurs and businesses in emerging markets.
In addition to basic products like savings and credit access to businesses and customers which JUMO offers, it also offers infrastructure to banks, fintechs and eMoney operators as well.
Ecobank, Telenor, MTN, Letshego, Airtel, Mansa Bank, Tigo, and Absa are some of JUMO’s partners.
JUMO is actively operating in six African markets — Uganda, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Zambia, and Ivory Coast. It also has a presence in Pakistan.
It has offered more than $3.5 billion worth of loans to over 18 million customers as well as granted up to 120 million individual loans across these markets.
JUMO believes it has an opportunity to disburse $29 billion a year based on the number of eMoney subscribers with access to loans that are currently on its platform. It believes the number can increase to $40 billion when it expands operations to Nigeria and Cameroon in 2022.
The participation by Fidelity in the investment round adds to the increasing list of first-time US investors that have profited in African tech, especially fintech.
“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.” said Watkins-Ball in a statement.
According to JUMO’s founder, the fintech company is focused on making it easier and affordable for capital providers to reach new customers.
It also seeks to provide a wide range of infrastructure and services (core banking, underwriting, KYC and fraud detection) to banks in order to help them make predictable returns.
The total bank capital and assets that is under management and deployed on JUMO’s platform since 2019, has increased to 160%, signifying its importance to the financial institutions.
Featured Image: Andrew Watkins-Balls, Founder and Group CEO, JUMO
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