South Africa’s fintech company; JUMO secured $52 million on an equity funding round led by banking giant; Goldman Sachs (GS. N) and is set to expand in high-growth Asian markets.
Other investors include; Proparco, Finnfund, Vostok Emerging Finance, Gemcorp Capital, and LeapFrog Investments.
JUMO, since its founding in 2014 has helped small businesses access savings and credit products through their mobile devices and it has focused on Africa where the adoption of mobile money has transformed the banking landscape. It has offices in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana, Zambia, United Kingdom, and CEO Andrew Watkins-Ball recently moved to JUMO’s Singapore office to lead the drive into Asia.
“That doesn’t mean though we won’t be expanding in Africa,” Watkins-Ball told Reuters. “But the majority of our allocation of resources going forward we would expect to be in very high-growth Asian markets.”
JUMO uses behavioural data like mobile telephones to help financial service providers and mobile network operators assess lending risk and tailor financial products to those living in developing countries where credit information is scarce.
Over 9 million people have saved and borrowed using JUMO technology since launch. The platform has generated more than $700 million in loans and manages over 25 million customer interactions per month, the company said.
“There is immense opportunity across Africa and beyond for JUMO to build on their successful track record developing digital marketplace infrastructure,” Goldman Sachs executive director Jules Frebault said.