South Africa-based Jumo, a technology platform for operating inclusive mobile financial services marketplaces, has closed an equity funding round of $52m led by Goldman Sachs who joins as a new investor.
Image: Jumo secures $52m funding from Goldman Sachs. Photo: Courtesy of rawpixel/Unsplash.
Jumo provides financial services to people who are either excluded or underserved by traditional financial services. Since its establishment in 2014, the firm claims that nearly 9 million people have saved or borrowed on its platform.
Majority of the borrowers are noted to have been micro and small business owners. It also says that till date, over $700m in loans have originated on its platform and manages more than 25 million customer interactions per month.
Other investors who participated in the funding round include Proparco, the private sector financing arm of the French Development Agency (AFD), Finnfund, Vostok Emerging Finance, Gemcorp Capital, and LeapFrog Investments. This is the first time that Goldman Sachs, Proparco and Finnfund are investing in Jumo.
Jumo CEO Andrew Watkins-Ball said: “The support of Goldman Sachs and our other investors is a significant endorsement of Jumo. We are working hard to connect hundreds of millions of people with access to the best possible choices from leading banks.
“We are proving that the evolution of computation and storage means that there is no longer any reason why the best financial products should not be available to people in the early stages of building wealth.”
Jumo uses agile and scalable Platform as a Service (PaaS) technology for operating inclusive and profitable financial marketplaces, adapting quickly to customer needs with solutions that improve their lives.
The firm partners with many of the largest banks and mobile money operators to provide individuals and small businesses savings and credit products via mobile devices.
At present, nearly 120 million mobile users are connected on the Jumo platform. With this flexible and exportable model, the company is planning to extend its footprint.
Currently, it has offices in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, Zambia, Pakistan, United Kingdom, Singapore and South Africa.
Goldman Sachs executive director Jules Frebault said: “There is immense opportunity across Africa and beyond for JUMO to build on their successful track record developing digital marketplace infrastructure to offer mobile subscribers access to relevant financial products.
“We are excited to partner with this highly capable team as they continue to leverage technology to advance financial inclusion.”