A Latvian startup, which bills itself as a “MoneySuperMarket for emerging economies”, is targeting a $20m Series A funding round later this year and is testing the waters on a European launch.

Jeff App, founded in 2019, is a comparison marketplace, in the vein of the UK’s popular MoneySuperMarket.

It teams up underbanked customers (those who don’t have access to traditional bank accounts or credit lines) in emerging economies with various credit products from its financial institution partners.

Leveraging, it says, data and machine learning, it creates profiles of individuals and marries them with suitable credit products, such as loans. Customers apply for products through Jet’s in-house data-scoring model.

In its early days it offered short-term instalment financial products but over time has evolved to offer a greater number and longer-term financial lending products, such as car-backed loans.

The fintech is now full-year profitable, says its co-founder and CEO Toms Niparts (pictured middle), and this year passed the $10m a year mark in revenues.

Niparts admits its model, which makes money by taking a commission from its financial partners which includes traditional banks, challenger banks and brokers, is not reinventing the bicycle.

Jeff has a presence in countries including Vietnam, where it launched, the Philippines, Mexico and Indonesia and says more than six million people have used its marketplace.

This year, it is looking to make a big push in India as well as launching in other South American countries like Peru, after recently launching in Colombia.

It is also testing the waters on launching in Europe, with Spain touted as a “fintech friendly” market, according to its CEO.

That said, the CEO is conscious of the differences between underbanked customers with scant if any credit history to those living in Western economies.

He said:

“If I think about the general credit underwriting. What happens in cases when you have credit history and bank transactions and data trail and what happens when you don’t?

“Those are two quite different markets to operate in and navigate from credit scoring, risk and underwriting perspectives.”

As well as is core marketplace, Niparts also points out that its service is helping improve the financial literacy of people in emerging economies.

Other plans for 2025 include extending its products offering to the likes of insurance, and even utility products such as broadband, says Niparts.

Jeff has around 50 employees, the bulk of them located in Latvia, with others dotted in the other markets it is in.

In 2023, it raised a late seed round of $2m and in total has raised around $4.5m.

It is backed by Presto Ventures, iSeed Ventures and Toy Ventures.

It is now looking to raise between $15m and $20m in a Series A round, says its co-founder, to help fund its overseas development.