Moove, an African mobility fintech that offers vehicle finance to Uber and other gig network drivers, has secured $105 million in fresh Series A2 funding.
This round was led by existing investors Speedinvest, Left Lane Capital, and thelatest.ventures (the first two of whom were lead investors in the company Series A), with $65 million in equity and $40 million in debt. Africa Invest, MUFG Innovation Partners, Latitude Capital, and Kreos Capital were among the new investors who took part.
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 loan deal. Lagos, Accra, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Nairobi, and Ibadan are among the six African cities where the startup, which was founded in 2020, is now active.
More than a billion people live in Africa, yet the majority of them do not have access to automobile financing. The region sold fewer than 900,000 new vehicles in 2019, compared to 17 million in the United States.
For the majority of the population, owning a car is a luxury, and firms like Moove are attempting to provide a long-term solution by providing vehicle finance to people who can profit from owning cars – gig drivers or mobility entrepreneurs, as Moove terms them.
Moove, which deals with new automobiles, is a flexible choice for drivers who wish to enter into the ride-hailing business without having to borrow money from friends or family or take out bank loans to finance cars purchased from dealerships.
How Moove Platform Works
Drivers register on the platform, are validated, and are trained and sign contracts with Moove in order to obtain loans to buy or rent automobiles. The company registers these drivers on Uber platform — the company’s only partner in Africa — and deducts weekly rental costs from their profits before distributing the balance to their accounts.
According to the firm, the loans are for 12 to 48 months, and when drivers repay them (at an annual interest rate of 8% to 13%), they own the automobiles.
When asked how many drivers have managed to earn ownership of automobiles since using the platform, Ladi Delano, co-founder, and co-CEO, remarked, “We’ve been able to deliver financial freedom through vehicle ownership for some of our clients who have completed the program in different areas.”
“As a result, we’re still a startup.” Those with a term of 48 months haven’t yet completed it. However, some customers who signed up for the shorter items early in the business were able to pay off their debts and make purchases.”
The CEO didn’t disclose concrete figures on loan repayment for borrowed cars, the number of gig drivers utilizing the platform (it had 12,900 pre-approved sign-ups as of August last year), or income (which Delano said has grown 50 percent month-on-month from last August). However, he stated that since its introduction two years ago, Moove-financed vehicles had completed over 3 million rides.
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This figure is not only based on ride-hailing services. Two-wheelers used for bike-hailing, courier and logistics services, as well as trucks and verticals, are included. After forming relationships with companies such as Uber and Lori, Moove has subsequently expanded across its seven African locations.
The revenue-based vehicle finance platform stated that it plans to expand this concept to other vehicle classes, such as three-wheelers and buses.
While the new Series A2 round will help Moove scale in its current territories, it will also assist the company in expanding into new countries outside of Africa.
“One of the things we discovered, and we’re extremely thrilled about, is that this problem of lack of access to funding for mobility entrepreneurs is not unique to Africa,” said the co-founder, who co-founded the company with co-CEO Jide Odunsi.