South African fintech JUMO raises $120m to drive its expansion into Nigeria

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JUMO, a South Africa and London-based company that offers financial services in form of credit to entrepreneurs and businesses, has raised $120 million in a new round of funding.

The round was led by Fidelity Management & Research Company with participation from Visa and Kingsway Capital.

This brings the total amount of funding secured by JUMO to over $200m after raising $52m in 2018 and $55m in 2020.

JUMO was founded in 2015 by Andrew Watkins-Ball. Its primary offering is to provide loans and savings options for individuals and small businesses. The company was part of Google’s Launchpad Accelerator in 2017 and has since come a long way.

Speaking on the investment, Melissa McSherry, the global Head of Risk and Identity Services at Visa said they were excited at the investment and looked forward to helping JUMO scale their operations.

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.”

Melissa McSherry, the global head of Risk and Identity Services at Visa

JUMO’s Services

JUMO - Wikipedia

JUMO offers core products around savings, credit to customers and businesses. Additionally, it provides infrastructure to banks, fintechs and eMoney operators.

According to the company’s website, they use artificial intelligence and machine learning to build accurate credit scores and targeted financial products for people who don’t have a formal financial identity, collateral or credit record.

Using the information provided by JUMO, banks are able to offer tailored financial services with high value and utility for customers.

Their services are currently available in six African markets — Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Ivory Coast and the South Asian country of Pakistan. Some partners include MTN, Airtel, Tigo, Ecobank, Absa, Letshego, Mansa Bank and Telenor.

In 2018, JUMO claimed to have helped nine million consumers across its six markets in Africa and originated over $700 million in loans. Now, they claim to have disbursed $3.5 billion to more than 18 million customers across all operational markets, granting up to 120 million individual loans.

Future plans

Portrait of a beautiful smiling afro American woman holding money isolated on a grey background

JUMO plans to use the new investment to expand into Nigeria and Cameroon. According to the current number of eMoney subscribers on its platform with access to loans, JUMO says it has an opportunity to disburse $29 billion a year. The company adds that this number can grow to $40 billion when it expands to Nigeria and Cameroon in 2022.

Also, JUMO says it will use the investment to improve and increase the number of financial products it offers to small and medium businesses. It also plans to provide longer-term lending options for merchants and bigger businesses.

The six-year-old company also wants to help banks make “predictable returns” by providing a full range of infrastructure and services from core banking to underwriting, KYC (know your customer) and fraud detection services.

The CEO of JUMO, Andrew Watkins-Ball mentioned his excitement at the investment and how proud he is of their work.

“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.”


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