10x Banking, the cloud-native SaaS core bank operating system founded by former Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins, announced today a partnership with Old Mutual to expand into Africa.

The company says that its expansion into Africa, beginning in South Africa, would see its solution adopted by major financial services organisations, including Old Mutual, for developing new products that will drive financial inclusion for unbanked communities.

10x Banking states that Old Mutual is aggressively seeking to help customers who have bank accounts but are critically underserved, with day-to-day money management needs not being satisfied by present offerings.

“It’s clear that in Africa the big driver is digital”, comments 10x founder and CEO Jenkins.

He adds: “By 2025, over half a billion people on the continent will have access to mobile internet, providing a platform for them to make payments, source financial advice, secure loans to buy a home or start a business.

“This opens up a huge set of opportunities for the underbanked and unbanked, which in turn drives economic growth.”

Jenkins adds that collaborating with large players in the financial services sector, such as Old Mutual, positions the company at the forefront of banking transformation in the most interesting markets with enormous development potential.

Further afield, 10x says it is witnessing increased interest in its platform from banks in India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and the United States, with the intention of working with institutions in Canada, Pan-Africa, and Central and Southern Europe in the future.

“These are the markets where we see a significant shift to a more customer-centric mindset among banks,” commented 10x’s Chief Revenue Officer, Matt Mills,

10x says its international expansion closely follows its $45 million funding round announced in January, as it continues to capitalise on the core banking market's significant momentum, which is being driven by large banks actively looking to adopt neo-core banking systems to accelerate their digital transformation.