Moove, an African automobile financing startup, has raised $76 million in a new round. The startup says it will use the funding to help achieve profitability.
Moove, an African automobile financing startup, has raised $76 million in new funding led by Mubadala Investment Company, an Abu Dhabi investment group, according to the Financial Times. This round includes equity and debt and comes from existing and new investors including BlackRock. In 2022, Moove raised $10 million in February, $105 million in March, $20 million in debt funding in June, $18.3 million in October, and $30 million in debt funding in December.
This new funding will be used to help the company achieve profitability over the next 12 months. According to Ladi Delano, a co-CEO, the startup is already profitable in the UAE, India, UK, and South Africa. With this funding, Moove is valued at $550 million. Launched in 2020 by Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi, Moove provides mobility entrepreneurs with access to revenue-based financing in markets where there’s low access to credit. Its customers, who are typically ride-hailing drivers, can purchase brand new vehicles using a percentage of their weekly revenue. The startup has annual recurring revenues of $90 million.
Since its launch in 2020, Moove has rapidly expanded its operations within Nigeria and entered new African markets, including Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, and South Africa, as well as the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. It’s also Uber’s exclusive car financing company in Africa.
Moove has operated a plug-and-play model that allows it to scale rapidly into new markets and record minimal defaults by building on top of the technology of its mobility and logistics partners and integrating their APIs to generate creditworthiness scores for automobile financing. However, this rapid scaling has come at a cost. In February, Moove drivers protested in Lagos over unfair working conditions. In May, Rest of World reported how Moove impounded vehicles for nonpayment of loans in Lagos as drivers continued to complain.
However, this has evidently not dampened investor confidence. Faris Sohail Al Mazrui, the head of ventures and growth at Mubdala, will join Moove’s advisory board. He said that Moove is addressing a hugely underbanked and underserved market with a long term potential by providing entrepreneurs with credit and financial services.
