African mobility is taking a new shape, credit to fintech startup Moove and its innovative mission.
Today, the Nigerian tech-based vehicle financing platform — also Uber’s exclusive car financing and vehicle supply partner in sun-Saharan Africa, announced the raise of a $23 million Series A funding round to help empower more African drivers to buy and own their own cars.
According to a press release, the round was led by Speedinvest and Left Lane Capital, with participation from other investors such as DCM, Clocktower Technology Ventures, thelatest.ventures, LocalGlobe, Tekton, FJ Labs, Palm Drive Capital, Roka Works, KAAF Investments, Spartech Ventures, Class 5 Global, and Victoria van Lennep, co-founder of Lendable. Additional investors also include Africa specialist, Verod Kepple Africa Ventures and existing Moove lender Emso Asset Management.
For many of its U.S.-based venture capital backers, Moove is their first investment into Africa, which provides a great opportunity for the platform to address the continent’s car ownership problem and access to financing.
“In a continent full of opportunity, mobility is key to moving economies forward and this funding contributes to our ability to provide revenue-based financing, as Moove empowers Africans to safely become mobility entrepreneurs,” Moove co-founder Ladi Delano said in a statement. “We help people buy new cars who otherwise couldn’t afford them. And then, using the vehicle as a mobility entrepreneur, they’re able to earn money, which allows them to pay off the vehicle over time.”
British-born Nigerian co-founders Delano and Jide Odunsi both set out to create Moove as a means to provide Africans with a path toward new vehicle ownership while also creating new jobs. Now, their focus is shifting to grow and expand into new markets while developing and launching new products and services from their innovative tech platform.
“With Ladi and Jide at the helm of a world-class team, and their unique approach to vehicle financing, Moove has quickly established itself as one of the most exciting tech companies in Africa,” Stefan Klestil — General Partner at Speedinvest — said in a statement. “The company’s expansion to three cities in under 12 months demonstrates the huge demand for vehicle financing in Africa, where just five per cent of new cars are purchased with financing, compared to 92 per cent in Europe.”
Following this funding round, Moove’s total amount of funding equals out to $68.2 million, including $28.2 million in equity and $40.0 million in debt. Moove plans to use the funding from this latest round to “build a full-service mobility fintech that democratizes vehicle ownership across Africa” and ultimately increase the amount of new vehicle sales.
