Juvo, a US-based company that offers lines of credit to individuals in emerging markets, recently raised USD 40 million from investors including New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Wing Venture Capital, both of which are also based in the US. Juvo plans to use the funding to “expand into more markets, strike more partnerships with carriers and bring other partners on-board to provide financial services that go beyond mobile micro-loans.” Juvo originally served Latin America, but now is expanding into Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia.
Juvo provides microloans exclusively to pre-paid mobile subscribers when they run out of credit for voice minutes or data. Individuals who are new to the Juvo app can by borrow enough money to buy approximately two days of mobile coverage. Upon repaying the debt, the users become eligible for marginally larger loans.
Wing Venture Capital general partner Peter Wagner said that “there are 5 billion mobile subscribers in the world, and 3.5 billion are in developing markets…for those individuals, mobile is a lifeline service… and it’s their most important regular transaction.”
Founded in 2014, Juvo has 45 employees and 500 million subscribers in 25 countries as of 2017.
Wing Venture Capital is a venture capital firm investing in data, mobile and cloud technology. As of 2017, it has raised USD 374 million.
Established in 1977, NEA is a venture capital firm specializing in technology and healthcare. As of 2017, NEA has raised USD 13 billion and invested in 730 companies.
All three firms are headquartered in the state of California.
By Aleks Marceau, Research Associate
Sources and additional information:
Article from TechCrunch:
https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/01/juvo-40-million-nea-wing-venture-capital/
Juvo home page:
https://juvo.com
Wing Venture Capital home page:
http://wing.vc
NEA home page:
http://www.nea.com
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