Mobile financial inclusion startup Jumo has raised a further $12.5 million from Odey Asset Management, bringing its total funding to date to $103 million.
The investment marks the formal close of the South African firm's most recent equity funding round, following a Septembr raise of $52 million with Goldman Sachs as the principal lead investor.
The firm says the new capital injection will be used to deepen data capabilities, specifically in applied machine learning and AI innovation across key markets in Africa and Asia.
Jumo currently has offices in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, Zambia, Pakistan, United Kingdom, Singapore and South Africa. It set up its Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore earlier in the year and has plans to enter several new Asian markets in 2019.
Since launch in 2014, more than 10 million people have saved or borrowed on the Jumo platform, with nearly 70% of these being micro and small business owners across Africa and Asia. To date, the company has originated almost US$1 billion in loans and maintained savings growth of over 50% month-on-month on its platform, which manages over 45 million customer interactions per month.
The company also last week sealed a tie-up with Uber to promote a car financing product for cabbies. Jumo says it plans to expand this offering to other ride-hailing firms across Sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.
CEO of Jumo, Andrew Watkins-Ball, comments: “We have a proven business model, evidenced in the strategic partnerships we have built with forward-thinking banks, mobile money operators and partners like Uber."