Fintech JUMO secures $55m from new and existing investors [Updated]

UPDATE (3 March 2020): Subsequent to the publication of this story, JUMO told Ventureburn that of the $55-million, $30-million was in equity and $25-million in debt. The tech company also provided more details on what the new investment would be spent on. We have updated the article accordingly.

Fintech JUMO — which was founded by SA entrepreneur Andrew Watkins-Ball in 2014 — has announced that it has raised $55-million in debt and equity funding.

JUMO told Ventureburn that of the amount, $30-million was in equity and $25-million in debt.

In an announcement yesterday, the Mauritius-registered mobile financial services platform said the funding will support JUMO’s expansion into new markets and the launch of new products.

JUMO said the funding round introduced new investors to join existing investors such as Goldman Sachs, Odey Asset Management and Leapfrog Investments.

Fintech JUMO has raised $55m in debt and equity funding from both existing and new investors

The tech company explained that said the funding will be used to support JUMO’s expansion into new markets in Africa in 2020 and enable the company to build a number of new platform features to “make it easier for our customers and partners to interact with the products”.

“We plan to deploy our tech stack in innovative ways to support major partners in the Indian market. Through our stakeholder engagement teams, we are working with regulators to increase their visibility around the important factors in digital financial services that will shape healthy and sustainable interactions for customers.

“Finally, we will continue to focus on improving our world-class engineering and decision science teams to support our existing integrations,” JUMO told Ventureburn.

The latest funding round follows the $64.5-million the company raised in late 2018 from UK based Odey Asset Management and Goldman Sachs among others (see this story).

JUMO currently partners with financial service providers and mobile network operators to provide credit and savings solutions in Pakistan, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Zambia.

Commenting in a statement, Watkins-Ball (pictured above) said he was excited for the company’s next phase.

“This backing will help us build a better business and break new ground. The strong vote of confidence, along with the world-class tech talent we now have in the business, means we can achieve exceptional outcomes for our partners and customers,” he said.

In November last year, JUMO announced that it had served over 15 million customers across six markets, namely in Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Pakistan.

The company, which said in yesterday’s statement that it plans to enter Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire and India this year, claims it has disbursed over $1.8-billion since its inception in 2014.

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Featured image: JUMO founder Andrew Watkins-Ball (Supplied)