M4JAM promises big comeback under new ownership

M4JAM, the much-hyped micro-jobbing startup, caused serious consternation in March when it sent out a message to its users telling them to cash out all the money from their wallets before the 31st of that month. Its fate hung in the air for some time, with founder Andre Hugo later admitting that M4JAM was looking for a buyer and might have to close if it didn’t find one.

Well, it seems a buyer was found and a big relaunch is imminent.

In the past few days, representatives from M4JAM have been in contact with Ventureburn with some information on the shape of things to come at M4JAM. While they weren’t prepared to reveal who the new owners are, they did reveal a number of new features set to roll out on the platform.

According to a statement sent to Ventureburn, these include:

• The opportunity to continue making sweet money by completing the micro-jobs as you know and love them with a focus around surveys and jobs that are super convenient for you to complete.
• The ability to chat and engage with other jobbers
• Access to an app which will provide notifications and personal dashboards etc
• The ability to join certain groups and communicate within these groups
• The ability to buy products and services with your M4JAM earnings. These products and services may include airtime, data, tickets, insurance plans etc.
• The opportunity to be trained in certain marketing / entrepreneurial fields and access to these opportunities on the ground.
• Access to great deals around airtime and data packages
• And a whole lot more!

M4JAM says that these features will take some time to roll out.

“We wish we could snap our fingers and make it all happen today, but these processes and platforms do take time to develop and build so we’re looking at a 4-6 month time-frame at this stage,” it says in the statement.

Ventureburn can also confirm that M4JAM founders Andre Hugo and Warren Venter won’t be involved with the new M4JAM. In a post published on LinkedIn, Hugo reveals that the sale and exit was concluded towards the end of April.

“We wish the new owners the best of luck with the business and know that they will continue grow it as part of their overall strategy,” he writes in the post.

While the new ownership has the platform back up and running, resurrecting it as a viable business won’t be easy. Right now, there are very few active jobs on the platform, with an even smaller number offering cash rewards.

Anyone who missed out on the previously published 31 March deadline for cashing out their M4JAM wallets can however breathe a sigh of relief. According to the statement, the traditional cash-out procedure “WILL be returning so we will not be arranging any EFTs or alternative arrangements as previously mentioned. You will be able to cash out your funds as per usual as soon as the system is back online”.