Africa’s fast-rising mobility company Moove has raised $105 million in a new Series A2 financing round. The round comes more than six months after the startup raised $23 million from its Series A round and a month after it secured $10 million in debt financing. Following the new round, Moove’s total funding is $174.5 million in debt and equity.
The new Series A2 financing round was led by SpeedInvest, Left Lane Capital – who led the startup’s Series A round, and TheLatest Ventures. Other investors who participated in the round include Kreos Capital, AfricInvest, Latitude and MUFG Innovation Partners. It is also pertinent to know that the A2 financing round came in at $65 million in equity and $40 million in debt, totaling into $105 million.
Founded in 2020, Moove is a mobility fintech that provides revenue-based vehicle financing to mobility entrepreneurs across Africa. The startup is currently present in six African countries namely – Lagos, Ibadan Accra, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Nairobi. Moove boasts of being Uber’s exclusive vehicle financing and vehicle supply partner in sub-Saharan Africa.
With its vehicle financing product, Moove is trying to fill the gap created by limited or no access to vehicle financing by Africans. Its vision is to democratize vehicle ownership across Africa and it believes that mobility is key to moving the economies of African countries forward. Moove is looking to widen the access to vehicle financing; this is something that more than a billion Africans do not have access to. The company says that it is widening access to vehicle financing by building tech to provide Africans the access to affordable vehicle financing while creating job opportunities and empowering a new generation of mobility entrepreneurs.
To access Moove’s vehicle financing product, drivers will need to sign up on the startup’s platform and after their identities have been verified, they are trained and made to sign a contract with Moove that’ll give them access to buy or rent cars. Now what Moove does is that it get these drivers on its ride-hailing partner Uber’s platform. Moove deducts weekly rental fees from the income of drivers before the balance is sent to their accounts. The loans have a duration of 12 to 48 months while drivers pay an annual interest rate of between 8 and 13 percent, after which the cars belong to them.
According to Ladi Delano, co-CEO and co-founder of Moove, “We have been able to provide financial freedom through vehicle ownership for some of our customers who have finished the programme in different markets. So we’re still a young business. Those at 48 months are yet to finish their term. But some that signed up very early in the business on the shorter products have been able to pay off and make purchases.”
Thanks to its new funding, move is looking at launching in seven new markets across Asia, Europe and the MENA region. “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,” co-CEO Ladi Delano said.
