Moove Nets $23M To Drive Higher Vehicle Ownership In Africa

Moove, an African FinTech company, on Monday (Aug. 9) announced that it has obtained $23 million in Series A funding to provide revenue-based vehicle financing initiatives for Uber drivers across the continent. Speedinvest and Left Lane Capital led the funding round, which also drew contributions from DCM, Clocktower Technology Ventures, thelatest.ventures, LocalGlobe, Tekton, FJ Labs, Palm Drive Capital, Roka Works, KAAF Investments, Spartech Ventures, Class 5 Global and Lendable Co-founder Victoria van Lennep.

Moove’s current lender, Emso Asset Management, as well as Africa specialist Verod Kepple Africa Ventures also participated in the round, which brings Moove’s total funding to $68.2 million.

The Nigerian-based company will use the funding to level vehicle ownership across the country by increasing vehicle financing opportunities. Africa is home to 1.3 billion people, yet in 2019, the country had less than 900,000 new car sales as compared to 17 million in the U.S., according to the company.

Moove is Uber’s vehicle financing and vehicle supply partner in Africa, with cars financed by the company having traveled on more than 850,000 Uber trips, covering more than 13 million kilometers across the continent to date, the company said.

Investing in Africa-based startups appears to be a trend as of late. As PYMNTS reported last week, Kuda Bank, another Nigerian FinTech company, generated $55 million in a Series B funding round at a $500 million valuation. The digital bank plans to use the backing to expand into other countries across Africa.

Read more: Nigeria’s Kuda Bank Raises $55M At $500M Valuation

With a goal of driving more new vehicle purchases across the continent, Moove’s business model entails financing new vehicle loans at up to 95 percent of the purchase price. Customers can repay loans within 24, 36 or 48 months using a portion of their weekly income. To determine whether a potential car buyer is a good borrower, Moove embeds its credit-scoring technology onto Uber and e-logistics platforms, which provides access to the performance and revenue data of Uber drivers.