LONDON — Juvo, a new technology company that provides a financial identity to prepaid mobile users, has hired CCgroup to lead its international PR across EMEA, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.

The hire comes as Juvo announces a $14m funding round in tandem with its formal global launch, two years after starting operations in the US. The company currently serves 23 countries across four continents with a reach of more than 100 million subscribers.

CCgroup will work to position Juvo as a financial inclusion and technology innovator, focusing on how the company's proprietary identity scoring algorithms can help billions of financially excluded people gain access to essential mobile financial services.

"With the rapid growth of smartphone subscribers in developing countries, Juvo’s mobile identity scoring technology is vital to usher the unbanked into the formal economy," explained CCgroup CEO Richard Fogg.

San Francisco-based Mercury Global Partners has been appointed alongside CCgroup as Juvo’s PR partner for the US.

"We needed an agency that could demonstrate global experience, expertise, and drive a successful international launch," said Steve Polsky, CEO and founder of Juvo. "We’re pleased with the success of our launch and the momentum that has followed. The global traction CCgroup has delivered, its deep relationships with critical influencers and its seamless cooperation with our US partner, gives us great confidence as Juvo rapidly expands across the globe."