UK Credit Card FinTech Jaja Finance Wins $157M in Investor Commitments

A consortium of investors has committed to fund up to £120 million ($157 million) in credit card lender Jaja Finance, a press release said Tuesday (April 5).

The consortium is being led by KKR and TDR Capital, both private equity companies.

The consortium has also recently taken majority control of the company. Original investors, LAG Silverstripe and others, still retain significant holdings.

Jaja, which is headquartered in London, announced the change in ownership last November.

The majority shareholders will now support the digital lender’s growth plans, which will include using the investment to “drive the transformation of consumer credit.”

The release says the growth will consist of a significant recruitment drive, with a 40% uplift in product and data science, software development, engineering and IT teams by the end of the year.

“Announcing the support of two leaders in the investment industry represents a considerable show of confidence in Jaja’s growth story, our plans and our people,” CEO David Chan said. “Our new shareholders will bring valuable insights to the business and will help support our mission to offer best-in-class core technology, products and services, while delivering innovation that matters to customers.”

Jaja was founded in 2015, and provides digital-first credit card products focusing on simplicity, functionality, service and security.

See also: Jaja Buys Bank Of Ireland UK Card Business

In 2019, PYMNTS wrote that Jaja had bought the Bank of Ireland’s U.K. credit card business.

That came with Jaja paying a cash consideration of $671 million at the current rates, and the FinTech firm will also serve as the consumer credit card issuer for the bank’s U.K. customers.

Then-CEO Neil Radley said the announcement was “an exciting and important development in Jaja’s journey and is part of our strategy to create partnerships that will help more people embrace a simpler way of managing credit.”