JUMO, a South African and London-based company offering financial services to entrepreneurs in emerging markets has raised $120 Million in a new round led by Fidelity Management & Research Company.
Fidelity's first investment in Africa was made through the round. It also included participation by fintech giant Visa as well as London-based investment management company Kingsway Capital. This round comes a year after Fidelity raised $55 million in an unnamed financing round.
Since its inception in 2015, JUMO has raised over $200 million in equity or debt rounds from backers like Brook Asset Management and Finnfund.
Fintech refers to itself in this way as a platform for banking-as a service. It uses AI to power financial services. This includes lending in emerging markets. 42% of adults living in sub-Saharan Africa or Asia are not banked, and 11% are covered by credit bureaus in Africa.
JUMO provides core products that address these constraints in both the markets. These include credit to customers, businesses and savings. It also offers infrastructure to banks and fintechs. MTN, Airtel and Telenor are some of the partners.
JUMO opened a Singapore office when it raised $52 million in 2018. However, the company appears to have shut down its Singapore office based on information in its statement. The fintech currently only lists London, Nairobi, Porto, Cape Town and Porto as its main tech and operational hubs.
The fintech sector is active in six African countries, including Kenya, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. It also has operations in Zambia, Ivory Coast, Zambia, Zambia, Zambia, Uganda, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Zambia.
JUMO has so far provided loans in excess of $3.5 billion to over 18 million customers across these markets. It also granted up to 120 million loans.
JUMO claims it can disburse $29 million annually based on the number of eMoney subscribers who have access to loans. According to JUMO, this figure could rise to $40 billion if it expands to Nigeria in 2022 and Cameroon by 2022.
This assertion is also supported by JUMO's operational costs. JUMO claims that it has lowered its costs by $1/customer per annum, which gives it the ability to scale effectively across a market with 150 million customers.
Fidelity's participation in JUMOs round is the latest in a growing number of US investors who are making their first investments in African tech, particularly fintech. Avenir Growth Capitals and SoftBanks backing Opay co-lead the round in Flutterwave.
It's thrilling to be part the US capital investment in payments and fintech in Africa. There are many great businesses being built, and we are proud of our role in supporting capital providers to reach great customers with great products. Watkins-Ball released a statement.
JUMO founder said that the company is focused on helping capital providers reach new customers at affordable rates. The company, which has been in existence for six years, aims to make banks predictable returns by offering a complete range of services and infrastructure from core banking to underwriting, KYC and fraud detection.
The platform's importance to financial institutions is evident in the increase in bank capital and assets under management since 2019.
JUMO plans to use the investment, in addition to expanding into Nigeria and Cameroon. It will also offer longer-term loans to merchants and larger businesses.
Melissa McSherry from Visa, who is the global head for Risk and Identity Services, stated that JUMO's lending platform is attractive because it can scale across countries and encourage financial inclusion by providing credit for small businesses and consumers. We are thrilled about our investment in JUMO. We look forward to increasing JUMOs adoption across markets and fulfilling Visas mission to help individuals, businesses and economies thrive.
