Nigerian Mobility startup, Moove closes $10 million round led by NPK Capital to expand across Africa

The mobility fintech company Moove has secured a $10 million financing deal from NBK Capital Partners Mezzanine Fund II. This makes the sixth investment from the Fund advised by NBK Capital Partners and the first investment in Africa.

Moove is a mobility fintech that is Uber’s exclusive fleet partner across Sub-Saharan Africa. The investment would help spotlight opportunities for mobility platforms like Moove to address the financial gap in vehicle ownership across the continent. This financing would aid Moove to expand into West Africa, to begin with.

Moove was co-founded in 2019 by British-born Nigerians Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi to provide revenue-based vehicle financing for mobility businesses across Africa. Schooled at the London School of Economics, Oxford University, and MIT, the co-founders have successfully built three other businesses before Moove.

Africa has growing urban areas to match its large population of over 1.3 billion people. There is a mobility challenge in the region, with fewer than 900,000 vehicles on the continent. This creates an extensive market opportunity with which Moove provides vehicle financing for cars, bikes, and lorries to mobility entrepreneurs in Africa, providing alternative credit scoring technology and a one-of-a-kind financing model.

The platform is currently operational in six cities across Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya, with plans to expand to other countries on the continent. The executives reported that between 2020 and December 2021, more than 2 million trips have been made in Moove-financed vehicles.

Yaser Moustafa, Chief Executive Officer of NBK Capital Partners commented, “We are very excited to partner with Moove on its journey to transform access to credit for millions of people across the African continent.”

Moustafa stated further that the company is driven by exceptional founders whose long-term vision for success is one built to empower individuals from various socioeconomic classes across the region, with genuine commitment to social and environmental sustainability.

Ladi Delano stated that the investments with NBK Capital Partners bring the total funding to $78 million, which would be used to facilitate the company’s continued growth trajectory as they expand operations.

“NBK Capital Partners Mezzanine Fund’s financing comes at a fantastic time for our company and is intelligently structured for our use case”, commented Delano. “We are grateful to be working with a firm that supports our vision to build the first mobility fintech for Africa markets, tackling the problem of lack of access to credit for millions.”

Co-founder Jide Odunsi, further added that with the alternative credit-scoring technology and revenue-based model, Moove is also empowering more women to access financing and to become mobility entrepreneurs. “We’re committed to ensuring that at least 50 percent of our customers are female, providing them with the tools, services, and flexibility they need to be productive and successful when previously they have been excluded from more formal means of employment,” Odunsi said.

Sikander Ahmed, Managing Director and Head of Private Credit at NBK Capital Partners said, “We are proud to support Moove’s management at such a vital time in the company’s expansion. We believe our flexible financing solutions are the reason why an increasing number of rapidly growing companies have come to rely on us for proven solutions to the many complex financial solutions in which they find themselves.”