Goldman Sachs-backed fintech Jumo appoints Joe Mucheru as president

Former ICT CS Joe Mucheru. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Goldman Sachs-backed South African financial services startup has appointed former ICT secretary Joe Mucheru as company president to overhaul expansion plans on the continent.

JUMO, which is valued at Sh49.7 billion ($400 million), provides financial services to entrepreneurs and businesses in emerging markets. It offers credit and savings products to customers as well as infrastructure for telecommunications companies, banks, fintech and e-commerce platforms.

The company, founded in 2015, said in a statement that in his new role, Mr. Mucheru will support the company to achieve its growth goals, navigate the regulatory landscape and build the firm’s presence across the African continent.

Mr Mucheru was hired by former President Uhuru Kenyatta in 2015 to lead the ICT Ministry from Google, where he served as regional head for sub-Saharan Africa and country manager for Kenya.

“We are honored to welcome Joe to JUMO. He brings an invaluable perspective given his experience as an entrepreneur, Google director and regulator, said Jumo founder Andrew Watkins-Ball.

The company is currently on an expansion quest, and in December it announced plans to launch in Cameroon in the first quarter of 2023, followed by Nigeria and Benin in the second quarter. It has also lined up new products for the Ghana and Uganda markets.

The former CS held various positions in business, especially in industry, before joining the former administration.

He was previously Head of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) for Google, based in Nairobi, and served as Google’s first SSA employee. He joined Google in 2007 where he led the delivery of strategy, business planning and operations and was key in setting up Google’s presence on the continent.

Before Google, he worked at Wananchi Online, the parent company of the internet provider Zuku, a company he co-founded in 1999.

He has held board positions at the M-Pesa Foundation Academy, Bitpesa (now Aza Group), an international money transfer platform, and GiveDirectly, a non-profit organization that allows donors to provide direct cash transfers to those in need. He is also the former chairman of the African Telecommunications Union.

Jumo has raised more than $200 million in equity and debt rounds from backers such as Goldman Sachs, Brook Asset Management, Finnfund, Gemcorp, Proparco and Leapfrog since founder and CEO Andrew Watkins-Ball launched the company in 2015.

Fintech is present in six African markets – Ghana, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and the Ivory Coast – and the South Asian country of Pakistan with Cape Town, Nairobi, Porto and London as its main technology hubs.

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