City hedge fund giant Crispin Odey backs emerging fintech startup Jumo

City veteran and hedge fund titan Crispin Odey has backed UK-based fintech startup Jumo with a $12.5m (£9.9m) funding injection through his firm Odey Asset Management.

The investment today marks the final close of Jumo’s most recent funding round, which raised $52m from Goldman Sachs as its lead investor. Other participants included the French Development Agency’s private funding arm Proparco, Finnfund and Worldremit-backer Leapfrog Investments.

The firm said Odey’s contribution will be used to further develop Jumo’s technology platform, as well as support market expansion and growth.

Jumo’s technology platform and products targets financial services for the financially-excluded or underserved, with a focus on emerging markets in Africa and Asia. It partners with banks and mobile networks to reach these customers, such as Barclays Africa Group.

The firm recently announced a partnership with Uber using Jumo Drive, a product which aims to reduce barriers to car ownership for existing Uber driver-partners. The product has been successfully piloted in Kenya, with the intention to expand the offering across sub-Saharan Africa in 2019.

Jumo has now raised more than $103m to date. Since launching in 2014, more than 10m people have saved or borrowed money using the platform.

Today's investment was managed by Odey partner James Hanbury, who will take up a non-executive role on Jumo's board.