African mobility fintech Moove raises £15 million to scale operations in the UK

Moove, an African fintech startup says it secured £15 million (~$17 million) in debt financing from Emso Asset Management to bring it to the $200 million mark in total funding.

The company secured $20 million in a debt funding round in July 2022.

The Lagos-born start-up with a growing global customer base of mobility entrepreneurs across sub-Saharan Africa and India, launched in Europe in August 2022, offering its customers access to brand-new electric, rent-to-buy, zero-carbon emissions vehicles with no credit checks, upfront costs, or deposit needed.

Founded in 2020 by Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi, Moove sought to democratize access to vehicle ownership through its alternative credit scoring technology platform to gig worker customers who may have previously been excluded from financial services.

One of the stand-out features of the startup that pioneered that whitespace of mobility fintech is how it solves the challenge of limited access to vehicle financing for millions and creates sustainable earning opportunities for gig workers across ride-hailing, logistics, and instant delivery sectors across its markets.

The company announced its partnership with ride-hailing company, Uber in July 2020, and is now Uber’s largest vehicle supply partner in EMEA, with its customers having completed over 9 million trips in Moove-financed vehicles.

Moove launched in London this August with a 100% EV rent-to-buy model that provides mobility entrepreneurs access to brand-new, zero-emissions vehicles for a flat weekly fee. The new financing facility will enable Moove to scale up to 10,000 vehicles by the end of 2025 and become the largest EV partner on Uber’s platform in London.

The startup estimates that the 10,000 EVs it plans to finance by 2025 in London will contribute to a reduction of around 63,000 megatonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year, as it transitions into a sustainable all-electric platform in the region.

Additional reporting by Acquah Nana Yeboah.