10x Banking, the transformational cloud-native SaaS core bank operating system founded by former Barclays CEO Antony Jenkins, has today announced a partnership with Old Mutual as it expands into Africa and scales its evolving core banking system into new markets in response to growing demand.

10x’s expansion into Africa, starting in South Africa, will see its solution used by major financial services companies, including Old Mutual, Africa’s second-largest financial institution, to develop new products that will drive financial inclusion for unbanked populations – a move that closely follows its launch in Australia and New Zealand last year. Further afield, 10x is seeing growing interest in its platform worldwide among banks in India, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and the USA, and looking further ahead it expects to work closely with banks in Canada, pan-Africa, and central and southern Europe.

“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, who joined the company last month from fintech scale-up Featurespace. “Banks can see the issue for themselves and come to us because they have a creaky core, unfit for rolling out financial products which meet the increasing demand among their customers for a better, digital-first user experience.”

10x’s international expansion closely follows its $45m (£35m) funding round announced in January, as it continues to capitalize on the significant momentum in the core banking market, underpinned by big banks actively looking to adopt neo-core banking systems to accelerate their digital transformation and thrive in an increasingly competitive battle to win and retain customers.

Old Mutual is actively looking to serve those who have bank accounts but are severely underserved, with their day-to-day money management needs not met by what’s currently available. It is also taking proactive steps to address the barrier of financial literacy across the continent, through a truly customer-centric approach.

“It’s clear that in Africa the big driver is digital”, commented 10x founder and CEO Antony Jenkins. “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. Working with major players in the financial services space, including Old Mutual whom we are delighted call a customer, we are proud to be at the heart of banking transformation in the most exciting markets with huge potential for growth.”

Having created the modern technology platform focused on a seamless customer experience that powered J.P. Morgan Chase’s entry into the UK retail banking market, 10x is committed to helping banks transform the way they operate in response to a rapidly evolving financial sector, catalyzed in part by the dominance of digital transactions and consumer demand for greater control and flexibility around the way they manage their money.