Jaja Finance, the company on a mission to simplify the world of consumer finance, has seen its customer waitlist grow to over 6,000 people following a successful crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs.
Jaja is now beta testing its app ahead of launching its credit card next month.
Jaja is the brainchild of the Norwegian entrepreneurs Per Elvebakk, Jostein Svendsen and Kyrre Riksen, who wanted to find a way of making credit simpler, fairer and easier for everyone to manage. They’ve since been joined by Neil Radley, ex-MD of Barclaycard Western Europe, who now serves as CEO. The company is FCA regulated and joins Revolut on Visa's fast-track partner program.
Jaja will soon be launching a 100% digital credit card, managed exclusively through the Jaja mobile app and purpose-built for the needs of customers. The company has seen its customer waitlist grow rapidly since its crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs, which sparked numerous discussions in online forums and fintech communities. As well as raising £5m from Celeres Investments and more than 1,000 private investors via Seedrs, it now has over 6,000 people on its waitlist and has received considerable feedback regarding potential features for its new card.
Jaja Card will help put people in control of their finances - with features including a real-time view of transactions, intelligent notifications and payment reminders. There will be no complicated forms to fill in and new customers will be up and running within minutes, requiring only a driving licence or passport to get started.
By linking Jaja Card to a bank account, users will also be able to top up their account to meet payment deadlines and prevent penalties. The company also plans to help customers pay off debts by moving their balance to low interest products such as installment loans.
CMO and Co-Founder of Jaja Finance, Kyrre Riksen, said: “We were blown away by all the positive feedback from online forums - we’ve had literally hundreds of comments from people wanting to see more innovation in this space. It seems people have generally been fairly unimpressed by new credit card offerings and are keen for a beautifully simple and easy-to-use product that helps them take control of their finances.”
Jaja is now running private beta testing of its app with its ‘beta pioneers’ (those at the top of its waitlist) and plans to launch to the public next month. Beta pioneers have been particularly impressed by the onboarding process, which allows customers to apply for a credit card and gain instant access to credit through a digital card. This process is currently taking an average of just under three minutes.
The company is backed by Blystad Group and Pollen Street Capital, who provided £4.4m of seed funding last year. It also has a £100m funding line secured for lending.