SA Jumo raises $120m to expand into Nigeria, Cameroon and increase product offerings to SMEs

South African fintech, Jumo, announced that it has raised $120 million in a new funding round led by by Fidelity Management & Research Company, with participation from fintech giant Visa and London-based investment management firm Kingsway Capital.

With this new funding and past fund raises including $55 million in 2020, $52 million in 2018, Jumo has so far raised over $200 million. Previous investment rounds have included Leapfrog, Goldman Sachs, Finnfund, Proparco, Vostok Emerging Finance and Brook Asset Management.

Jumo says the new fund raise 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. It will also support JUMO’s international expansion in new markets such as Nigeria and Cameroon.  

Founded in 2014 by South African entrepreneur, Andrew Watkins-Ball, JUMO is a tech startup that has created a unique platform to help facilitate digital financial services such as credit, and savings in emerging markets. The fintech startup, which was registered in Mauritius, has partnered with funders, banks, and telecommunications companies to create accessible financial tools. 

According to Andrew Watkins-Ball, JUMO Founder and CEO, “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.”

JUMO claims it has built an intelligent platform that enables banks to reach millions of new customers with credit and savings products. So it 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.”

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. 

JUMO has the opportunity to disburse $29 billion a year, according to the current number of eMoney subscribers on its platform with access to loans. In 2022, This is set to grow to an annual lending volume of $40 billion, following market launches in Cameroon and Nigeria.