# Jon Jacobson

> Jon Jacobson is the co-founder, Group CEO and CTO of Omnisient, a privacy-preserving data collaboration platform that lets banks, insurers, retailers and healthcare organizations share and analyze consumer data without exposing raw personal information. A software engineer with more than 25 years building data platforms, he founded Omnisient in South Africa in 2019 to attack a specific problem: nearly two billion people are shut out of affordable financial services because they lack the behavioral data lenders use to assess risk. His platform uses cryptography to tokenize and match datasets locally, turning loyalty-card and retail data into alternative credit signals.

- **Role:** Co-Founder, Group CEO & CTO at Omnisient
- **Organizations:** Omnisient, Argility, Credit Suisse First Boston
- **Nationality:** South African
- **Education:** BSc in Computer Science, Economics and Mathematics, Rhodes University, South Africa
- **Known for:** Co-founded Omnisient, now used by more than 80 of Africa's largest banks, insurers, retailers and healthcare organizations., Selected for the World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneer Community., TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200 participant and Fast Company 'Next Big Things in Tech' honoree.

## Career timeline

- **1990s** — Led the Global Financial Reporting team at Credit Suisse First Boston in New York, supporting 300+ financial controller users globally.
- **1999** — Returned to South Africa to build a first-of-its-kind multi-channel marketing platform serving FMCG brands including Diageo and Levi's.
- **2012** — Joined Argility as Head of Omni-Channel Commerce, leading retail technology strategy and Single Customer View platform design.
- **2019** — Co-founded Omnisient in South Africa as a privacy-preserving data collaboration platform.
- **2023** — Omnisient named a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer; TransUnion announced a minority investment and strategic partnership.
- **2025** — Omnisient raised a Series A (latest tranche ~$12.5M), bringing total funding to roughly $22.2M.

## Achievements

- Co-founded Omnisient, now used by more than 80 of Africa's largest banks, insurers, retailers and healthcare organizations.
- Selected for the World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneer Community.
- TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200 participant and Fast Company 'Next Big Things in Tech' honoree.
- Secured investment and partnership from TransUnion and from Africa's largest retailer.
- Delivered a case study where retail data improved loan-repayment prediction by 40%, qualifying 3.2 million previously unbanked people for credit.
- Member of a United Nations Privacy Enhancing Technologies committee.

## Latest updates

- **2025-11** — Omnisient closed a further funding tranche (Series A), taking total raised to roughly $22.2M.
- **2023-11** — Featured in a Center for Data Innovation Q&A on financial inclusion and privacy-preserving data collaboration.

## Links

- Website: https://omnisient.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonjacobsonomnisient/
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/B2BDataCollab
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KaLx6Dr2zxM

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/jon-jacobson
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-07-16