Uber has partnered with JUMO, a fintech firm to launch JUMO Drive, a unique digital vehicle finance product to increase its fleet of cars in Kenya and across Africa.
After a similar deal with Kenya’s Sidian Bank, Stanbic Bank and South Africa’s Wesbank and a recent deal with CMC Kenya and Suzukifor UberCHAPCHAP. Uber’s appetite to grow its fleet across Africa is not waning. Jumo Drive is set to launched across Africa in 2019.
According to JUMO Founder and CEO Andrew Watkins-Ball, “JUMO Drive is another way that we are making it easy for small businesses to access great choices: in this case getting a real-time solution to owning your own vehicle financed by a leading bank. The vast majority of ride-sharing Drivers globally don’t own their own vehicles. We are looking forward to rolling this out to many more markets.
Since its launch in 2014, more than 9 million people have saved or borrowed on the JUMO platform, with nearly 70% of these being micro and small business owners. JUMO has originated over USD$700 million in loans on its platform and manages over 25 million customer interactions per month. JUMO Drive aims to double that.
In September, the firm raised $52 million led by Goldman Sachs to further its growth and expansion into new markets. Other leading investors including Proparco, the private sector financing arm of the French Development Agency (AFD), Finnfund, Vostok Emerging Finance, Gemcorp Capital, and LeapFrog Investments participated in the round.
In April it raised $3m from Proparco. In November 2017, JUMO raised $24 million loan facility from Finnish development Finnfund.
JUMO Drive uses JUMO’s driver behavioural data to facilitate credit scoring and simplify the loan application process for driver-partners. All applications are transparent and require no upfront costs, no sign-up fees, no deposits.
Jumo Drive also boasts of a flexible repayment structure, a car tracking device and a car service and maintenance plan. The credit risk score of the driver-partners is determined by the driver’s earnings, trips and behaviour patterns ensuring that each driver receives offers that are individually designed. Finance for the vehicles is provided by bank partners on the JUMO platform.
Justin Spratt, Head of Business, for Uber Middle East and Africa explains, “Earlier this year, Uber and JUMO ran a pilot with a select number of Uber drivers in Nairobi who were pre-approved based on their driving behaviour. Based on the success of the pilot, we are happy to bring this innovative financial solution to driver-partners in Sub Saharan Africa.”
“The introduction of JUMO Drive builds on our philosophy of creating economic empowerment for Uber driver-partners. We are constantly seeking opportunities that will allow drivers to start their own business full time while improving their lives – we believe this partnership with JUMO will play a significant role in doing just that.”