humm announces proposed joint venture with neobank Douugh to enter U.S.

humm announce a proposed joint venture with neobank Douugh to launch a Douugh-branded buy now pay anywhere feature into the U.S market in 1H22. Douugh will utilise humm’s technology platform to manage a line of credit up to US$1,000 to eligible customers through a dedicated ‘Credit Jar’ on Douugh’s platform and virtual Mastercard, allowing customers to meet urgent expenses and pay back over six weekly instalments.

Douugh is a purpose-led fintech, taking a proprietary artificial intelligence (AI)-first approach to disrupting the business model of banking, helping customers better manage their money and experience better financial health. It’s developing a subscription-based financial wellness platform, which helps customers spend wisely, save more and build wealth via a smart bank account and Mastercard debit card. On 17 November 2020 Douugh announced the official launch of its financial wellness app in the United States, after a successful 18-month beta trial.

This is the first proposed joint venture generated by humm ventures, an initiative to explore new and innovative ways to rapidly expand the global reach and distribution of humm’s technology and capabilities. It comes two weeks after humm ventures announced its first strategic partnership with Mastercard to work with Mastercard’s partners to drive adoption of bundll and support development.

humm CEO Rebecca James said, “Through our proposed joint venture with Douugh, we are taking our first steps into the United States as a company. At the same time, we are demonstrating how humm ventures can create innovative and novel ways to take humm’s world class technology and capabilities to expand its relevance and distribution. As Australasia’s bigger buy now pay later partners with America’s newest neobank, we are proving that we can take what we have learned locally and apply it on the global stage, disrupting the payments industry and providing better customer experiences across the world.”

To support the development and execution of this initiative, humm is also making a strategic investment of $2,500,000 as part of Douugh’s capital raise. The investment is at an issue price of $0.22 per share.

The proposed joint venture is subject to:

• completion of due diligence by both parties;
• entering into a licensing agreement with Douugh’s US banking partner;
• Douugh’s platform being fully operational; and
• humm and Douugh entering into a formal binding agreement setting out the full terms of the JV.