The San Francisco-based startup Juvo secured $40 million in a series B round of funding less than a year after coming out of stealth mode.
A member of the Fierce 15 2017, Juvo aims to help mobile network operators identify “invisible” prepaid customers, giving those users a way to access mobile financial services that might otherwise be inaccessible. The company partners with both carriers and financial institutions to use “data science-based credit algorithms” to identify prepaid users, enabling them to build financial identities.
Juvo raised $14 million in its series A round last fall; the latest round was led by new Enterprise Associates and existing investor Wing Venture Capital.
Early investors include former CEOs from AT&T Wireless, Sprint, Telefonica International and Vodafone Group, each of whom participated in the series B round.
“Today, there are over 2 billion underbanked people in the world – most of whom have a mobile phone,” CEO Steve Polsky said in the company’s announcement. “Juvo reaches these individuals, identifies them as creditworthy and provides access to financial services... This new funding will allow Juvo to expand and deepen our product offerings as well as continue to build the best-in-class teams in data science, financial services and consumer mobile services.”
Juvo has deals in place with seven mobile network operators worldwide with a reach of more than 500 million customers across 25 countries and four continents. The company claims its partners have reduced churn by 50% or more while increasing ARPU as much as 15%.
“The idea for Juvo came from a variety of experiences, particularly working with telcos in developing countries,” Polsky told FierceWireless via email last fall. “I saw firsthand the untapped population around the world who are credit worthy, yet never given an opportunity to obtain even the most basic financial services many of us in the Western world take for granted.”