Moove Africa Raises $23mn in Series A Capital Round Plus $40mn Debt

The firm has an exclusive partnership with Uber for strategic vehicle supply in its rideshare categories across SSA. Headquartered in the Netherlands, it’s operational in Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa. Moove is tapping into Africa’s growing urbanisation and shared economy trends.

It uses alternative data to provide easier financing access to new vehicles, while exploring different scale paths.

Moove’s platform connects with three core players – drivers (looking to secure new or fairly used vehicles on one of its plans), vehicle suppliers (providing vehicles at discounted prices in bulk), and service providers (financial services, technical services etc), according to Renaissance capital.

Moove provides vehicle financing to Uber drivers, leveraging its exclusive partnership with Uber for vehicle financing and vehicle supply in sub-Saharan Africa.

“The business model is tapping into urbanisation trends in Africa, even as companies such as Uber lead the way in growing the continent’s shared economy. Moove has different potential scale paths – regionally, service offerings, mobility type, and beyond Uber, while exploring other data-driven monetisation paths,” RenCap said.

Moove sources debt to finance its cars. To source drivers, it currently relies on Uber driver data – ratings, driving history, cashflow etc. Qualifying drivers get invited to a 1.5hr walk-in registration process which includes a simulated test and could get approved for a car, depending on selected plan, within five days.

Driver-to-vehicle ratio is very high (i.e. >1). The leased vehicle comes with fuel discounts, insurance, a free phone and data, free servicing and maintenance, partnerships with healthcare companies, in-car advertising etc.

Vehicles are monitored via telematics, to track and gather car health and driving data. Depending on the market, passengers typically pay the driver via cash (Nigeria), mobile money (Ghana) or cards (SA), after which the driver settles Moove daily or weekly. Cards provide the least collection risk.

Moove can finance up to 95% of the purchase within five days of sign-up to its offerings, including flexible rental (1-4 weeks) and drive-to-own lease (24-, 36- and 48-month options).

Leases are most popular as drivers are enticed by the prospect of owning a new car (the new-to-used car ratio in Nigeria is 1:131 [according to the UN, 2017]). Moove charges a net effective annual interest rate of 8-13% vs banks’ 20-25% and earns income from in-car adverts.