SA startup JUMO awarded $150 000 prize by Mastercard Foundation for client help

South African fintech startup JUMO has been awarded a $150 000 prize by the Mastercard Foundation in its third annual Client at the Centre award.

The prize, awarded yesterday by the Mastercard Foundation, highlights best practices in financial services where client satisfaction is a priority.

Mastercard said in a press release yesterday that close to 100 financial service companies around the world submitted entries to the competition. An international panel of judges selected three finalists who presented to the audience at the 2017 Symposium on Financial Inclusion in Accra, Ghana.

JUMO’s Buhle Goslar said for those in the customer function, the prize was probably one of the most exciting to win

The 400-person audience then voted for the world’s most impactful and sustainable financial service provider that puts “clients at the centre” of its thinking and operations for the benefit of poor people in developing countries. The award is to be used to expand or reinforce client-centric practices within the winning organisation.

JUMO acts as a marketplace by bundling loan products from the continent’s main banks and selling these to entrepreneurs and consumers who source the finance via mobile phones.

The startup’s customer intelligence director Buhle Goslar said for those in the customer function, the prize was probably one of the most exciting to win. “They really know about customer centricity; for them to vote for us is a great acknowledgement of the work that we’ve been doing.”

The prize follows JUMO’s selection earlier this year as the first SA startup to make it into Google Accelerator.

Read more: JUMO first SA startup to be selected for Google Launchpad Accelerator

The foundation’s Symposium on Financial Inclusion (SoFI) has focused on client centricity for the past five years.

Mastercard Foundation director of financial inclusion Ann Miles said the foundation was “thrilled” to award this year’s prize to Jumo “for its exemplary work of putting clients at the centre of its business model”.

Two further prizes went to ftcash, one of India’s fastest-growing financial technology ventures which aims to empower micro-merchants and small businesses with the power of digital payments and loans, and Destacame, a free online platform in Latin America that empowers users by giving them control over their data to build their financial capabilities and to access financial products.