Additionally, this investment will help Juvo enable global mobile operators to significantly accelerate migration to smartphones amongst prepaid mobile subscribers, offering access to digital financial services and delivering on digital transformation.

Mobile operators in competitive and developing markets across four continents use Juvo’s data science fueled prepaid engagement and growth solution to target subscribers with “fee free” airtime advance purchases, loyalty building incentives and rewards, and access to basic and progressively advanced financial services. At the same time subscriber engagement increases, Juvo’s sophisticated data science technology identifies and qualifies users for smartphone migration and handset financing - a first for most prepaid subscribers. Real time Identity Scoring allows retail agents to convert users in-store, through a seamless point-of-sale (POS) integration. As users migrate to smartphones over traditional feature phones, mobile operators deepen subscriber relationships and unlock value via digital services, typically seeing an increase in data consumption by an average of 30 percent per subscriber.

“At Samsung NEXT, we’re focused on working with entrepreneurs and startups that are creating truly impactful software and services--software and services that will transform the way we, as humans, interact with our devices, each other and the world,” said Patrick Chang, Principal, Samsung NEXT Ventures. “Juvo’s impressive traction from mobile operators and consumers offers an opportunity for us to tap into the next billion customers through more comprehensive financial inclusion and accessibility.”

“From the beginning, Juvo has been driven by the vision of ‘access for all’ and the idea that doing good is also good business,” said Steve Polsky, founder and CEO of Juvo. “This new collaboration with Samsung NEXT allows us to further realize our vision by being among the first to integrate financial identity into a hardware device and, with it, offer unprecedented access to greater financial services. Samsung opens a critical piece of the ecosystem for Juvo, and its world class organization, market expertise and reach will accelerate the Juvo mission, putting sophisticated technology in the hands of unbanked people and provide financial access to those who need it most.”

The combination of Samsung’s leading hardware footprint, Juvo’s sophisticated software and mobile carriers’ customer base has the potential to enable real time, automated POS transactions via an easy-to-follow user interface.