Kenyan startup Jamborow is a fintech platform that provides white label solutions to enable savings and credit cooperatives societies, or Saccos, to better serve their members and scale operations while at it.
Founded in 2018 by Moses Onitilo and Olusegun George, Jamborow brings together all players in the financial ecosystem, including lenders, borrowers, and intermediaries.
Its system digitises KYC data, automates and digitises operations, creates a credit score for all members, avails e-wallets to members, provides additional sources of funding for on-lending, has a business intelligence tool, and offers API code-share integrations.
So far, it has onboarded over 1.4 million Sacco members across Sub-Saharan Africa and is looking to expand into the East African market.
“We partner with loan companies by providing scaled, efficient technology and operations that calculate individual credit scores, allowing them to process loan packages to customers,” said George. “Our automated AI-powered platform connects microfinance and cooperatives to clients in desperate need of their services.”
With uptake so strong, the founders, who put in US$400,000 of their own savings to begin operations, are currently raising a seed round to fund further growth. Its focus is on Kenya and wider East Africa.
“Kenya is significant to us because it serves as a case study for mobile money. It is a cashless society and a technological powerhouse,” said George.
“We have a women’s group in Kilifi with 1,500 members. Having participated and been a finalist in the Co-op bank’s Akilikali challenge, we have been onboarded onto their system and are currently working on the granular details of the partnership. It will give us access to several co-operatives. We are closing a deal with a group that offers to fund widows in both Kenya and Tanzania.”
Once Jamborow has scaled sufficiently in Kenya, George believes it will be simple to replicate in other markets.
“We are at a watershed moment in history. A new, digital financial system is disrupting the old, analogue one. We have the opportunity to lay the groundwork for a modern digital financial ecosystem that includes and empowers everyone,” he said.
