JUMO, a technology platform for operating inclusive mobile financial services marketplaces, has announced the close of an equity funding round of USD$52 million led by Goldman Sachs, with participation from other leading investors including Proparco, the private sector financing arm of the French Development Agency (AFD), Finnfund, Vostok Emerging Finance, Gemcorp Capital, and LeapFrog Investments. This funding round represents Goldman Sachs, Proparco and Finnfund’s maiden investments into JUMO.
The funds raised will be used to further JUMO’s growth and expansion into new markets. Since its
launch in 2014, more than 9 million people have saved or borrowed on the JUMO platform, with
nearly 70% of these being micro and small business owners. To date, JUMO has originated over
USD$700 million in loans on its platform and manages over 25 million customer interactions per
month.
CEO of JUMO, Andrew Watkins-Ball, who has relocated to Singapore to support the company’s
growth in Asia, commented, “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’s technology is a highly agile and scalable Platform as a Service (PaaS) for operating inclusive
and profitable financial marketplaces, adapting quickly to customer needs with solutions that improve
their lives. The company partners with many of the largest, most forward-thinking banks and mobile
money operators to offer individuals and small businesses savings and credit products via mobile
devices. Through its existing partnerships, nearly 120 million mobile users are currently able to
connect to the JUMO platform. Given this highly flexible and exportable model, the company is
looking to extend its footprint. JUMO has offices in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ghana,
Zambia, Pakistan, United Kingdom, Singapore and South Africa.
Jules Frebault, Executive Director at Goldman Sachs, commented, “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.”
