JUMO raises $120m led by Fidelity, Visa and Kingsway

JUMO, a technology company building next-generation financial services for emerging market entrepreneurs, announced the successful raise of $120 million from new and existing investors. The round is led by Fidelity Management & Research Company and represents their first investment in emerging markets fintech.

Andrew Watkins-Ball, JUMO founder and CEO said, “It’s exciting to be part of the wave of US capital being invested in payments and fintech on the continent – there are some great businesses being built and we are proud to play a role supporting capital providers to reach customers with great products. We are really grateful for the vote of confidence from our new investors and will continue to work hard to improve our products for our partners and customers.”

The latest funding round brings JUMO’s total funding raised to date to about $200 million. Prior investment rounds have included Leapfrog, Goldman Sachs, Finnfund, Proparco, Vostok Emerging Finance and Brook Asset Management.

Founded in London, JUMO has built an intelligent platform that enables banks to reach millions of new customers with credit and savings products. JUMO is focused on making it easier for capital providers to be able to reach new customers at affordable prices whilst making predictable returns. The platform itself provides a full range of infrastructure and services that banks need in order to operate, from core banking to underwriting, KYC (know your customer) and fraud detection services.

“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,” said Melissa McSherry, global head of risk and identity services at Visa. “We are excited about our investment in JUMO and are looking forward to accelerating adoption of JUMO’s platform across markets and delivering on Visa’s mission of helping Individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive.”

The fundraise will support the scaling of JUMO’s platform capacity, enabling the company to evolve its services and increase the number of financial products on offer to SMEs, as well as providing longer term lending options for merchants and bigger businesses. The funds will also support JUMO’s international expansion in new markets such as Nigeria and Cameroon.

To date, the JUMO platform has been used to make 120 million loans, totalling $3.5 billion, to more than 18 million people and small businesses in Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Côte d’Ivoire and Pakistan.

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