Investors Give Moove $10m Debt Finance for Expansion

By Adedapo Adesanya

Nigerian mobility fintech startup, Moove, has secured $10 million in debt financing to enable it to expand across key markets in West Africa. The money was got from NBK Capital Partners’ Mezzanine Fund II.

Moove is the first investment in Africa by NBK Capital Partners funds, underscoring the opportunity for a platform like Moove to address the continent’s vehicle financing gap.

Moove embeds its alternative credit-scoring technology onto ride-hailing and e-logistics platforms, which allows access to proprietary performance and revenue analytics of mobility entrepreneurs to underwrite loans.

Its model is to provide loans to its customers by selling them new vehicles and financing up to 95 per cent of the purchase within five days of sign up.

Through to year-end of December 2021, more than two million trips have been made in Moove-financed vehicles since it launched operations in 2020.

The startup raised a $63.2 million Series A debt and equity funding round last year to help it expand more quickly and subsequently launched in South Africa.

Speaking on the new fund, the co-founder of the company, Mr Ladi Delano, said the financing came at a fantastic time and was intelligently structured for Moove’s use case.

“This investment brings our total funding raised to date to $78 million and will fuel our continued growth trajectory as we expand our regional operations to empower more mobility entrepreneurs.

“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,” he said.

On the partner’s end, Mr Yaser Moustafa, chief executive officer (CEO) of NBK Capital Partners said, “We are very excited to partner with Moove on its journey to transform access to credit for millions of people across the African continent.

“The company is driven by strong founders who possess a unique, long-term vision for success, one built on the empowerment of individuals from every socioeconomic class across the region but also a genuine commitment to social and environmental sustainability.”

Founded in 2019 by British-born Nigerians Mr Ladi Delano and Mr Jide Odunsi, who have successfully built three other businesses in Africa over the last eight years through venture studio Grace Lake Partners, Moove is democratising vehicle ownership in Africa by providing revenue-based vehicle financing to mobility entrepreneurs.