Moove, Nigerian based mobility fintech startup raises $23m Series A funding to help it expand swiftly. Founded in 2019 by Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi, who have built three other firms in Africa through venture studio Grace Lake Partners over the last eight years. By providing revenue-based car finance to mobility entrepreneurs, Moove is equating automobile ownership in Africa.
Global VC, Speedinvest, and New York-based Left Lane Capital led the round. Other investors include DCM Ventures, Clocktower Technology Ventures, thelatest.ventures, London-based LocalGlobe, California-based Tekton Ventures, New York-based FJ Labs, and Palm Drive Capital which is also based in New York.
Singapore-based Roka Works, Dubai- based KAAF Investments, Abu-Dhabi-based Spartech Ventures, California-based Class 5 Global, and Victoria Van Lennep, co-founder of Lendable are also some companies who participated in the seed round. Verod Capital Management, Africa’s focused VC, Kepple Africa Ventures, and London-based Emso Asset Management – one of Moove’s existing lenders also joined this round.
By integrating its alternative credit-scoring system into ride hailing and e-logistics platforms, Moove allows mobility entrepreneurs exclusive performance and revenue metrics to underwrite loans. Its business idea is to sell new cars to consumers and finance up to 95% of the purchase price within five days of signing up.
According to Yahoo! Finance, many of the US-based VCs in this round are making their first investments in Africa. Moove now has $68.2 million in total investment, with $28.2 million in equity and $40 million in debt.
Their business concept involves offering consumers up to 95% automobile finance, which may be paid back using a percentage of their weekly earnings over 24, 36, or 48 months. Customers can also hire new cars for a weekly cost through the company’s Flexi-Rental program. Moove wants to make sure that 60% of all loans are used to buy electric or hybrid cars. This is a trend that appears to be gaining traction across Africa.
Vehicle funding is difficult to come by in Africa. In Nigeria, for example, according to Deloitte, only 2% of Nigerians could afford to buy a new car in 2016. For a country with a population of over 200 million people, these are not particularly spectacular figures.
The funds will be used to develop a full-service mobility fintech that democratizes vehicle ownership across Africa. Africa has 1.3 billion people, with 43% living in cities and rising, and only 900,000 total new car sales in 2019, compared to 17 million in the United States.
The equity fundraising comes after a year of development and success for Moove, which has seen the company debut in three cities and increase by 60% month over month. It currently operates in Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa.
– Techkudi