Jaja Finance is a London-based, digital mobile-first credit card lender founded in 2015 by Per Elvebakk, Jostein Svendsen and Kyrre Riksen. The company offers consumer credit via credit cards and aims to become a major player in the UK credit card market. It will use new funding to fuel growth and to drive the transformation of consumer credit. Jaja plans a substantial recruitment push, targeting a 40% uplift in product, data science, software development, engineering and IT teams before the end of 2022. Original investors, including AG Silverstripe, continue to retain significant holdings. The firm previously worked with KKR to fund its £530 million acquisition of the Bank of Ireland’s British credit card portfolio. Jaja offers digital and physical credit cards through a mobile-first app that uses camera-based ID capture and an AI algorithm for near-instant credit decisions. The company issues Visa-branded cards, supports digital wallets immediately, and advertises no foreign-exchange fees, free cash withdrawals and an APR of 18.9%. Jaja has commercial partnerships including Asda/George.com and will become the consumer credit card issuer for Bank of Ireland UK and the AA under the announced deal. The startup has been intentionally onboarding slowly and reported a waitlist of about 6,000 people prior to launch; it is active only in the UK. Financially, Jaja previously raised about $16 million (including ~£3 million via Seedrs) and is now receiving a new equity injection alongside the acquisition transaction. The company is not disclosing a valuation or current usage metrics beyond the waitlist figure. Jaja Finance is developing a mobile-only credit card product and has begun onboarding users from its waiting list to trial the service. The company intends to use recent funding to launch its credit card offering and expand hiring at its London office, targeting 45 in-house staff by the end of 2019. Jaja says it will pursue a full banking licence in the future but is currently focused on the credit sector. It has pursued partnership and white-label deals to create additional revenue streams alongside its own product. The startup previously trialled its technology in stealth mode in a retail environment to work out bugs before a broader rollout.

Total raised

$189M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Apr 2022