David Chan/Jaja Finance.
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KKR and TDR Capital-led consortium invest up to £120m in Jaja Finance, after taking majority stake
Jaja Finance, which is headquartered in London, said the initial investment of up to £120m marked the start of a “long-term strategic partnership” with its new majority shareholders to help support its growth.
A consortium of investors headed up by private equity heavyweights KKR and TDR Capital has pledged to invest up to £120m in credit card lender Jaja Finance, after taking majority control of the company.
In November last year,Jaja Finance announced a change in ownership with a consortium led by KKR and TDR Capital becoming the majority shareholders in Jaja Finance.
Specific details of the consortium's shareholding have not been disclosed.
The change in ownership structure comes two years after Jaja Finance enlisted KKR help to fund its £530m acquisition of the Bank of Ireland’s British credit card portfolio.
The deal brought 500,000 Post Office and AA credit card accounts into the Jaja Finance fold, but the subsequent integration project led to a 14-month delay in the launch of Jaja Finance's credit card.
Jaja Finance, which is headquartered in London, said the initial investment of up to £120m marked the start of a “long-term strategic partnership” with its new majority shareholders to help support its growth.
Jaja Finance’s original investors, including AG Silverstripe, retain significant holdings.
The credit card lender said it will use the funds to undergo a major recruitment drive, which it said will see a 40 per cent uplift in its product and data science, software development, engineering and IT teams before the end of 2022.
David Chan, CEO, Jaja Finance, said: “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.
“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 Finance was founded in 2015 by three Norwegian entrepreneurs Per Elvebakk, Jostein Svendsen and Kyrre Riksen with the hope of shaking up the British credit card market.
After initially raising moderate funding amounts with £4.4m from Pollen Street Capital and the Blystad Group and crowdfunding an additional £5m in 2018 with help from Celeres Investments, Jaja Finance then changed course with its Bank of Ireland portfolio acquisition in 2019.
Chan, the former CEO of German alternative lender Monedo, joined as the new CEO of Jaja in October 2020 to scale up the firm's tech.
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