In a significant move for the fintech landscape, South African startup Omnisient has secured a $7.5 million investment from Arise, a prominent investor in African financial service providers and fintechs. This Series A funding is set to bolster Omnisient’s mission to enhance financial inclusion across Africa and beyond.
Founded in December 2019, Omnisient has quickly established itself as a leader in privacy-preserving data collaboration. The platform allows various stakeholders — including retailers, financial services, and healthcare firms — to collaborate on consumer intelligence while maintaining strict data privacy standards. By providing a secure environment for data analysis, Omnisient has garnered recognition for its innovative approach, including accolades from Fast Company, the Africa Bank 4.0 Summit, and TechCrunch.
Omnisient’s platform is designed to address a critical issue: the exclusion of approximately 1.7 billion people from formal financial services, according to the World Bank. These individuals often face barriers to essential services such as housing, healthcare, and education. By leveraging consumer shopping behavior to aid credit risk assessments, Omnisient helps these underserved populations gain access to loans, insurance, and other financial services.
The new investment from Arise will enable Omnisient to extend its technology into new markets, including Africa, the UK, the USA, and the Middle East. Jon Jacobson, co-founder of Omnisient, emphasized the significance of this funding: “Our mission is to create the world’s largest repository of alternative consumer data to grow financial inclusion. The investment from Arise will enable us to expand and partner with larger data providers. This will allow banks and insurers to extend financial services to millions more people globally, driving financial inclusion on an unprecedented scale.”
Gavin Tipper, CEO of Arise, highlighted how this investment aligns with their vision: “This investment aligns with our vision of using cutting-edge fintechs to drive growth in Africa’s financial services sector. Omnisient’s technology will assist banks and data providers in identifying new customers, unlocking new revenue streams, and fostering financial inclusion.”
Omnisient is currently in the process of assessing strategic partners for the US market and the retail media space as part of its ongoing Series A funding round. This expansion is expected to further enhance its capabilities and reach, contributing to its goal of widening financial inclusion globally.
A Look at Omnisient
Omnisient, founded in 2019, is a privacy-preserving data collaboration platform. It empowers financial services businesses to securely access high-value consumer data in a regulatory-compliant manner using advanced cryptography and AI.
In essence, Omnisient is a company that helps financial institutions like banks and insurance companies make better decisions about who to give loans or insurance to. They do this by using a special technology that keeps people’s information private while still letting the companies see patterns and trends in how people spend money. This helps the companies decide who is a good risk and who is not, without knowing too much about each individual person.
The platform helps businesses unlock the power of first-party data collaboration without compromising customer privacy. Omnisient is recognized as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, a TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200 participant, and a Fast Company “Next Big Things in Tech” startup, among other accolades.
The $7.5 million investment from Arise marks a pivotal moment for Omnisient, setting the stage for significant advancements in financial inclusion and data privacy across multiple regions.