African mobility fintech, Moove has raised $105 million in new Series A2 financing to provide vehicle financing to drivers of ride-hailing platforms like Uber and other gig networks in seven new markets across Asia, Europe and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) over the next 6 months.
The new fund follows its recently secured $10 million in debt financing a month ago and $23 million Series A round in August, last year. The startup said with the fund, it will model its gig drivers in other vehicle classes such as three-wheelers and buses.
The funding round was led by existing investors; Speedinvest, Left Lane Capital and thelatest.ventures and also include new investors such as AfricInvest, MUFG Innovation Partners, Latitude and Kreos Capital.
What they are saying
The new funding will expectedly allow the mobility startup to scale up across its present markets, and move into new markets outside Africa.
Ladi Delano, co-founder and co-CEO said the startup has been able to provide financial freedom through vehicle ownership for some of our customers who have finished the programme in different markets.
Delano also said Moove is targeting seven new markets across Asia, MENA and Europe over the next six months. He said, “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.”
Speaking on how the new funding will be useful to expand the startup, Jide Odunsi another co-founder and co-CEO pointed out that problems of lack of access to financing for mobility entrepreneurs is not just unique to Africa.
“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.”
“At Moove, we are working hard to create disruptive and impactful tech solutions to solve real-world problems. The Moove model that we’ve pioneered in Africa providing revenue-based vehicle financing to mobility entrepreneurs can be applied anywhere in the world, which is why we’re excited to be expanding to new emerging markets in Asia and the MENA region.
As we scale, we remain committed to empowering women, leading the electrification of the mobility space and driving financial inclusion. These ideals are at the core of what we do as we continue to build a sustainable and impact-driven global business.”
Julius Tichelaar, Partner at AfricInvest, said, “At AfricInvest, we are focused on supporting and growing companies that we believe will go beyond their own borders and become regional champions. Ladi and Jide have proven that Moove has the potential to transform the lives of millions of people across the continent and we’re delighted to be supporting them as they expand Moove in Africa and beyond into more emerging markets. Through the AfricInvest FIVE Fund, we’re incredibly proud to be joining Ladi, Jide and all the Moovers on their exciting journey of disrupting financial services.”
What you should know
- The startup, launched in 2020, is now present in six African cities: Lagos, Accra, Johanessburg, Cape Town, Nairobi and Ibadan and now has raised a total funding round of $174.5 million.
- The platform said it is democratizing vehicle ownership across Africa by providing mobility entrepreneurs access to revenue-based financing in markets with low access to credit using its alternative credit scoring technology.
