GoCab Raises $45m Seed Round After Hitting $17m ARR

GoCab, a mobility-focused fintech that helps ride-hailing and delivery drivers acquire vehicles through a “drive-to-own” plan, has raised $45 million in fresh funding. The company says it is now generating $17 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR), a milestone it frames as validation for its model.

The seed round is split between $15 million in equity and $30 million in debt, with GoCab reporting a $51 million post-money valuation. E3 Capital and Janngo Capital led the round, while KawiSafi and Cur8 Capital also participated.

GoCab enables drivers to acquire brand-new vehicles they can fully own within three years by making daily payments, an approach similar to Moove, which the founders say influenced their direction. The company’s app is used for making payments and tracking progress toward vehicle ownership.

GoCab currently runs two pricing models which are the short-term rental: Drivers rent a vehicle for seven days but are charged for five and drive-to-own: Drivers make a higher daily payment that contributes directly to eventual ownership rather than simple rental.

The startup began operations in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, where it says it has financed more than 1,000 vehicles. It also operates in Senegal, Chile, and Morocco (a recently launched market). GoCab says it is looking at Nigeria and Ghana, but is still developing a working playbook for expansion.

According to co-founder Azamat Sultan, GoCab has more than 5,000 drivers on its waitlist, and its near-term objective is onboarding as many as possible while expanding further across Africa.

GoCab says it has pushed for profitability from the outset, which has shaped how it runs operations. One example is sourcing vehicles directly from manufacturers rather than vehicle dealers, in an effort to avoid dealer markups and improve pricing for drivers.

The company also maintains an in-house team of more than 60 mechanics responsible for repairs and maintenance of vehicles used by its drivers. Sultan argues that keeping maintenance in-house reduces “margin leakages” that can come from outsourcing critical functions and helps GoCab control repair timelines that would otherwise disrupt drivers’ ability to work.

Beyond leasing, GoCab also generates revenue from maintenance and parts. It sources spare parts directly from OEMs in China, an operational necessity, the company notes, because the vehicles it provides are not widely used locally.

Operationally, GoCab says many of its current activities are conducted through licensed partners because it does not yet hold a regulatory licence. The company says it intends to obtain the appropriate licence in the future, which would allow it to operate more independently and develop a broader suite of credit products.

On the product roadmap, GoCab says it plans to offer buy now, pay later services for drivers for needs such as phones or fuel. It is also testing health insurance for drivers via a partner.

GoCab also said it initially allowed drivers to get cars without deposits, but has since changed the policy, with some vehicles now requiring a deposit. Sultan linked the change to costs incurred after driver infractions.

In a statement included with the funding announcement, Janngo Capital Founder and Executive Chair Fatoumata Bâ said the financing gives GoCab the scale to deploy “thousands of productive vehicles,” and pointed to an operational roadmap toward 10,000 active assets and $100 million in recurring revenue.

Separately, GoCab says it is in talks to raise an additional $60 million in Shariah-compliant debt. The company says $30 million has been raised so far from investors including Cur8 and Cumberland, with discussions continuing with another lender for the remaining $30 million.

GoCab’s founders, Sultan and Hendrick Ketchemen, previously planned to launch a private credit fund focused on Africa, but pivoted after concluding the market was not large enough based on their research. Both have backgrounds in investment management.

As it expands, GoCab says it has had to localise operations and messaging market by market. In Senegal, for instance, it switched onboarding sessions to Wolof after finding that French-language onboarding did not land with drivers; the company said nearly 70% did not fully understand its value proposition before the change.

GoCab also positions transparency as a way to reduce abuse risks historically associated with drive-to-own schemes, where terms can change midstream. Sultan said reducing “information asymmetry” strengthens the relationship over the typical three- to four-year term of the model, and the company added that operating in a Sharia-compliant manner provides an additional guardrail.