JUMO, a South Africa- and London-based company that offers financial services to entrepreneurs and businesses in emerging markets, has raised $120 million in a new round of funding led by Fidelity Management & Research Company. The company is now valued at $400 million. The round, which marks Fidelity’s first investment in an African company, also saw participation from fintech giant Visa and London-based investment management firm Kingsway Capital. It is also coming a year after raising $55 million in a similar unnamed financing round. In total, JUMO has raised more than $200 million in equity and debt rounds from backers such as Brook Asset Management, Finnfund, Gemcorp, Proparco, Leapfrog and Goldman Sachs since founder and CEO Andrew Watkins-Ball launched the company in 2015.
The fintech, which refers to itself as a banking-as-a-service platform, says it uses AI to power financial services, particularly lending in emerging markets where over 1.7 billion people do not have basic access to financial services, 42% of adults in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia are unbanked and only 11% of adults are under credit bureau coverage in Africa. To meet these constraining needs in both markets, JUMO offers core products around savings, credit to customers and businesses, as well as infrastructure to banks, fintechs and eMoney operators. Some partners include MTN, Airtel, Tigo, Ecobank, Absa, Letshego, Mansa Bank and Telenor. When JUMO raised its $52 million in 2018, it opened an office in Singapore to enter Asia, but the company seems to have closed shop there based on information from its statement. Presently, the fintech only states Cape Town, Nairobi, Porto and London as its primary operational and tech hubs. 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.