LIVE FROM GSMA MOBILE 360 LATIN AMERICA, MEXICO: US firm Juvo announced a strategic partnership with Millicom which involves powering the operator’s shop app in countries across Latin America.

Steve Polsky, Juvo CEO (pictured), was at the M360 event to announce the partnership and appear in a session on mobile money.  He told Mobile World Live the firm is working with other operators, but declined to name them.

The firm has actually had a commercial relationship with Millicom for some time, but only now has chosen to go public about it, said Polsky.

Juvo’s core business is identity scoring which, it says, goes beyond conventional credit scoring by pulling in more data sources.

Juvo’ technology is being used by Millicom in its Tigo Shop app, accessed by prepaid users in Guatemala, Colombia, Paraguay, El Salvador, Bolivia and Honduras to buy service packages, as well as managing balances to activate additional voice, messaging and data.

“Prepaid subscriber behaviour is changing, driven by increased connectivity, digital services, and smartphone adoption,” said Miguel Angel Garay, VP Mobile, Millicom.

The Juvo identity-scoring service enables operators to fill out the financial identities of their users, so they have a better view of their creditworthiness of prepaid users, about which they might have little information.