• Latvia-based financial super app Jeff has built a highly data-driven marketplace for financial services in some of the world’s biggest emerging economies in Asia. By providing an alternative consumer analysis via a collection of digital data footprint, the platform provides access to an increasing number of people – mostly in financially underserved segments – to services suited to their needs
• The $2M late-seed round was led by Presto Ventures, with participation from existing investors such as the specialist data and AI fund J12, alongside a group of high-profile angel investors 
• Since its 2020 launch in Vietnam, Jeff has expanded into other Southeast Asian markets including Philippines and Indonesia, has grown to $10M in revenue, and became profitable during 2023. 

The marketplace has given more than 6 million people access to apply for over 60 million financial products. With the new capital, Jeff will continue its commercial expansion into India and other emerging markets throughout Asia and beyond, accelerate the recruitment of top tech talent, and build out the suite of financial services and products, such as credit, on their marketplace.

The app has proven a clear-product market fit and their considerable growth has happened in a sustainable manner, as Jeff posted profit for the first time in 2023.

Significant financial inclusion gap persists in emerging economies

While continuous efforts are certainly being made towards financial inclusion globally, the gap between financial institutions and populations in emerging economies remains considerable. 

According to the latest data from The World Bank’s Findex database, 40-60% of the population in large emerging economies like Vietnam, Indonesia, Mexico, and Philippines do not have an account with a financial institution, and only 10-20% of people have ever borrowed money from a financial institution. These factors, among others, lead to blank credit and financial history records for highlighted segments of people.

The marketplace gives traditionally underserved populations an increasingly competitive opportunity to access credit solutions from a growing number of financial services providers. 

Jeff achieves this by creating a client assessment infrastructure based on alternative data, which is enabled by automated collection, aggregation, and analysis of digital data footprints such as the user behavior, device metadata, TelCo, as well as IP-address related patterns. 

In parallel, the data collection creates a comprehensive assurance structure for the financial service providers, enabling tailored matchmaking between product and consumer needs, as well as actionable insights to improve overall portfolio quality and decrease fraud risk. At a time of accelerating digital adoption across the global financial ecosystems, Jeff clears obstacles that once kept financial services out of reach for many parts of the population – at the same time, they create new market opportunities for banks and lenders, advancing the progress towards an inclusive economic development. 

“Last two years have been especially challenging for startups. Achieving profitability marks a significant milestone in our journey. In combination with new funding, it empowers us to get back on a high-growth trajectory. While achieving a market-leading position in our core markets, we’ve established a foundation for a geographic expansion playbook which allows for swift, yet profitable scaling into new countries. With our scale, we can now become key partners for top tier financial incumbents. And given the change of habits post-covid, historically offline-first emerging markets have accelerated their adoption of new digital preferences. Financially, we can now pursue new product categories – ones that offer much greater market size and a faster path to becoming a household name in emerging markets,” says Toms Niparts, co-founder and CEO at Jeff. 

“At Presto, we’re strong advocates of and big believers in the use of AI, machine learning, and alternative data science – especially in markets where the traditional financial data landscape poses challenges. Once the Jeff team launches in India, they’ll have a footprint in 5 of the 20 largest countries in terms of population around the world. In these countries, the segments of underbanked and financially underserved consumers are significant, and many similarities can be drawn among their systemic problems. The Jeff team has already proven their success in Vietnam was not a one-hit-wonder, and we’re excited to see their blueprint for entering new countries and product categories in action,” comments Roman Novacek, Partner at Presto Ventures.   

“Having worked in huge markets set for dynamic growth like Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, and others, I can say with absolute confidence that these large economies are on the verge of massive digitalization of financial services, creating very sizable opportunities for players like Jeff. Knowing and seeing how Toms and the team think and go about their business, I am bullish about what the company will achieve,” adds Jean Pascal Duvieusart, Partner at BD Partners and an experienced veteran in the field of emerging markets financial services.

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