Jem, a Cape Town company that runs HR and workforce tools for deskless staff over WhatsApp, announced on 17 August 2026 that it had raised an $8.4m Series A led by Quona Capital, a fintech investor focused on emerging markets.
The University Technology Fund, an existing backer that increased its investment, took part alongside E4E, Next176/FutureGrowth and a group of angel investors that included former Old Mutual chief executive Iain Williamson. The valuation was not disclosed.
According to The Condia, the round brings Jem's total disclosed funding to about $13.7m.
“Employers have spent years stitching together a dozen disparate systems to run their teams. Jem is now the one place they can do all of it.”Simon Ellis, Co-founder and CEO, Jem
What Jem does
Jem was founded in 2020 as SmartWage and took its current name in 2022. It began by letting employees draw wages they had already earned through WhatsApp, with the money arriving within 90 minutes. Co-founder and chief operating officer Caroline van der Merwe said the company was set up as an alternative to payday lenders, which she said cost workers about ten times more.
The product has since grown to cover payslips, onboarding, time and attendance, leave, workforce communication and employee benefits. Because it runs inside WhatsApp, frontline staff do not need to install a separate app. Its recently launched Jem 2.0 hub includes time and attendance, credit scores and an employee assistance programme, while rostering and a learning management system are in beta. Employers can also connect to Jem through an MCP link from the AI tools they already use.
Jem said it serves more than 250,000 employees at more than 200 companies, including Servest, KFC, Meridian, The Capital, Edgars and Illovo. Servest said it uses Jem for its 18,000 employees. The company said it was named this year as one of Bloomberg's African start-ups to watch.
Why Quona invested
Johan Bosini, a venture partner at Quona, said Jem had grown recurring revenue by more than 100% year on year and reached about 120% net revenue retention with negligible churn. He said employers increasingly treat the platform as operational infrastructure, and that it could be used to offer further services such as payroll tools, mobile connectivity and insurance to workers that traditional financial services struggle to reach.
Wayne Stocks, managing partner of the University Technology Fund, said the fund was increasing its investment because of the company's progress and team.
What the money is for
Jem said the funding would speed up its growth and the launch of new products for Africa's deskless workforce. According to ITWeb, the company plans new features including rostering, onboarding, employee assistance programmes and credit scores, and van der Merwe said it aims to serve more than one million users within three years and to expand internationally.
Launch Base Africa and The Condia reported that the Series A follows a $3.3m pre-Series A round led by Next176 in 2025, which included a R30m private debt facility, and a $2m seed round in 2022. Simon Ellis is Jem's co-founder and chief executive.
Company website: jemhr.com