Moove, an African fintech company that provides vehicle finance to drivers on ride-hailing platforms such as Uber and other gig networks, has secured $105 million in fresh Series A2 funding.
“One of the things that we found and we’re very excited about is that this problem of lack of access to financing for mobility entrepreneurs is not just unique to Africa,” said Ladi Delano, co-founder and co-CEO who started the company with co-CEO Jide Odunsi. “It is a problem faced across many emerging markets. So what this new round is going to help us do is not just scale in Africa across our existing markets and new markets, but it will also enable us to do to scale into new markets and new regions.”
Speedinvest, Left Lane Capital, and thelatest.ventures (the first two of which were lead investors in the company’s Series A) led this round, which included $65 million in equity and $40 million in debt. AfricInvest, MUFG Innovation Partners, Latitude, and Kreos Capital were among the new investors.
The news comes nearly seven months after Moove secured a $23 million Series A round and a month after the mobility fintech closed a $10 million debt financing round. Since its inception in 2020, the firm has expanded to six African cities: Lagos, Accra, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Nairobi, and Ibadan.
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While the new Series A2 round provides Moove with the resources necessary to scale in its current markets, it also enables the company to expand beyond Africa.
Delano added that the funding will also be used to develop a more sustainable strategy for launching EV solutions for its gig drivers in Africa and new regions.
“We have managed to build a Nigerian solution for what we now know is a global problem. And that is exciting for us. Because not only do we have the opportunity to help solve the lack of access to vehicle financing problems for mobility entrepreneurs in Africa, but now we have the opportunity to take this Nigerian-born solution to the rest of the world,” Delano said on growing the Nigerian-based company beyond African shores. “This is something that we’re just so proud of and we’re excited. And I’m hoping that it’s going to be the beginning of a lot more Nigerian born startups and solutions, being able to solve global problems.”
Moove has raised a total of $174.5 million in debt and equity financing. Delano contended that this amount is insufficient to meet market demand. Nonetheless, that big sum gives sufficient ammunition to pursue markets outside Africa, where it has been forced to fight with Autochek, FlexClub, and Planet42, all of which use distinct vehicle finance schemes. Moove will confront new competition in its emerging markets from players such as Southeast Asia’s Carro, the United Kingdom’s Drover, and France’s Virtuo.
A Look At What The Startup Does
Moove is an African mobility fintech founded in 2019 by Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi that is democratizing vehicle ownership by providing revenue-based vehicle finance to mobility entrepreneurs across Africa. The two co-founders are British-born Nigerians with degrees from the London School of Economics, Oxford University, and MIT. Prior to starting Moove, they successfully created three other firms on the continent.
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Moove is Uber’s official vehicle financing and vehicle supply partner in Sub-Saharan Africa, providing vehicle financing for cars, bikes, and trucks to mobility entrepreneurs across the continent using its alternative credit scoring algorithm and novel revenue-based financing model. The organization presently works in six locations spanning Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya, with intentions to grow across Africa.
Since its start two years ago, Moove-financed vehicles have purportedly completed over 3 million journeys.
According to the revenue-based vehicle finance platform, it plans to expand this concept to gig drivers operating in additional vehicle classes, including three-wheelers and buses.
Over the next six months, Moove will expand into seven new regions across Asia, MENA, and Europe.
“As you can see, this white space that we discovered on mobility fintech, we want to make sure that with this new funding round, we continue to have our first-mover advantage. We go into these new markets to build businesses and to meet our customers at their point of need,” Delano said.
Africa is home to more than a billion people, the majority of whom lack access to auto financing or do not have it at all. In 2019, the region sold fewer than 900,000 new vehicles, compared to the United States’ 17 million that year.
Moove funding Moove funding
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer