This expands Moove’s footprint in Latin America, adding to its operations across 19 cities on six continents. The acquisition increases Moove’s total fleet to 36,000 vehicles and boosts its annual revenue to $275 million. 

Kovi, founded in 2018, has built a strong presence in Brazil and Mexico by providing flexible vehicle access to ride-hailing drivers. The company’s proprietary IoT software and driver behaviour algorithms will now be integrated into Moove’s operations, enhancing efficiency and safety.

Ladi Delano, co-founder and co-CEO of Moove, said, “Kovi has built an impressive business with a robust presence in Brazil, one of the most dynamic mobility markets in the world. We’re thrilled to welcome them to the Moove family. This transaction not only strengthens our footprint in Latin America and reinforces our position as a dominant player in global mobility, but it also underscores our commitment to contributing to the Brazilian economy.”

Moove, which started operations in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2020, has greatly expanded, securing partnerships with companies like Uber. It offers financing solutions to ride-hailing and delivery drivers and has recently ventured into autonomous vehicle technology.

Kovi’s CEO, Adhemar Milani Neto, also shared his view about the deal. “Today, we stand at the forefront of a new era in mobility, and we believe that Moove has done a fantastic job at scaling their business on a global scale and with the right strategic angles. I met the founders many years back when they were scaling their business in Africa, and I was immediately impressed by their purpose-driven approach, which is also a perfect match to our culture. Together, I believe we will become a truly global category-defining business and will leverage scale and deep expertise never seen in our market.”

The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but Moove confirmed that it was an all-share transaction, making Kovi a wholly owned subsidiary. The acquisition is still subject to regulatory approval from Brazilian authorities.

Moove has raised over $500 million in debt and equity funding from major investors, including Uber, BlackRock, and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC). 

While Delano declined to comment on future fundraising plans, he emphasised that the company is focused on achieving profitability and scaling its mobility solutions worldwide.

The expansion comes less than two months after the company entered the U.S. market, continuing its mission to provide vehicle financing and support to drivers.

In a statement on LinkedIn, Moove wrote: “Getting Mexico on the Moove! We’re excited to share that Moove has officially hit the streets of Mexico City! The first vehicles have been delivered to our drivers, marking a significant milestone in our LatAm expansion,” the company announced. 

“With our Mexico team now fully onboard and operations underway, we’re driving towards a future of mobility that empowers drivers to achieve their goals and gain financial independence.”

Moove offers its customers financial independence by providing access to vehicle financing through its innovative lease-to-own model. The company partners with ride-hailing and delivery platforms, enabling drivers to own their vehicles while earning an income. 

The goal is to create a positive social and economic impact by offering drivers in emerging markets access to vehicles and financial services.

Moove has set goals to further drive its impact globally, including gender equality, targeting a 50% female customer base, and promoting clean energy by building the world’s largest hybrid and electric vehicle fleet.

The company also focuses on financial inclusion, ensuring that customers have access to financial services that may have previously been out of reach.

Currently operating in seven countries including Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, the UK, India, the UAE, and the US, Moove aims to enter new markets by 2025 as part of its growth strategy and its entry into Mexico is in line with this goal. 

Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi founded Moove in 2020 to provide vehicle financing solutions to ride-hailing drivers. These drivers can gradually own their vehicles, with payments automatically deducted from their weekly earnings.

In recent years, Moove has shifted its focus towards electric vehicles (EVs), with its entire fleet in the UAE now fully electric as of 2023. The company has also rolled out EVs in the UK and is preparing to introduce more than 20,000 electric vehicles into its Indian market.

With Moove’s operations in Mexico City, the company looks ahead to further growth across Latin America. “This is just the beginning, and we’re proud to play a role in creating a positive impact across the region,” Moove emphasized.

Drivers in Mexico City can now apply to Moove, get verified, and start driving with one of its partner platforms, joining the global community of drivers working towards vehicle ownership and financial independence. 

The company, co-founded by Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi, aims to make inroads into the U.S. market as part of its strategy to achieve profitability by 2025.

Since August 2024, Moove has been actively recruiting for positions in Los Angeles and California. These roles include a managing director and a head of debt capital markets, the latter being an important role in driving the company’s fundraising and handling complex financial transactions, as highlighted in job postings on LinkedIn.

This expansion follows Moove’s earlier announcement in March 2024, when it secured $100 million in investment from a range of backers, including Uber, Future Africa, and Dubai-based The Latest Ventures. 

While Moove did not reveal the specific countries it plans to enter, the company made it clear that its focus would be on electric vehicle (EV) financing, with a goal to introduce greener transport options.

Currently operating in six markets including Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, the U.K., India, and the UAE, Moove plans to double its footprint by expanding to six additional countries by 2025. 

The startup’s operations in the UAE have already set a precedent, with a fully electric vehicle fleet contributing to a good number of EV trips on the Uber platform in that region.

Moove’s model involves selling vehicles to drivers and deducting a portion of their earnings on a weekly basis, allowing them to eventually own the vehicles. 

This business approach has, however, faced challenges in its home market of Nigeria. Rising inflation and fuel price hikes have made it harder for drivers to meet their payment obligations. 

The U.S. market, with its more stable economic conditions and advanced credit scoring systems, is likely to present fewer of these hurdles. 

Whether Moove will need to adapt its revenue-based financing model for the U.S. is not yet known, but the company’s focus on expanding its EV fleet is clear.

Moove is thriving in its mission of supporting financial inclusion and sustainability, providing drivers with the opportunity to own their vehicles and offering greener transport solutions.

Moove aims to be the largest EV partner on Uber’s platform in London with plans to scale to up to 10,000 vehicles by the end of 2025, creating sustainable earnings opportunities and contributing to the city’s net zero carbon emissions goals.

London is the global leader for Uber’s electrification efforts with over 6,000 EVs on the platform – the most of any Uber city. Moove’s London launch will enable Uber to progress towards its goal of becoming an all-electric platform in the capital by 2025.

Transforming mobility gig economies through vehicle finance

Founded by British-born Nigerian entrepreneurs Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi, Moove launched in Lagos, Nigeria in 2020 to democratise access to vehicle ownership. Having now scaled to nine markets across sub-Saharan Africa and India, Moove is leading the charge in the ‘mobility fintech sector’, a white space it created and which is solving the challenge of limited access to vehicle financing for millions of gig workers across ride-hailing, logistics, and instant delivery sectors, of which there are around 4.5 million in the UK alone.

Moove’s alternative credit scoring technology provides access to vehicle financing to gig worker customers who may have previously been excluded from financial services. Over the past two years, Moove has enabled sustainable job creation and a path to asset ownership with its customers having completed over 7 million trips in Moove-financed vehicles.

In London, Moove’s innovative approach to vehicle financing is designed to empower its customers with access to brand new, zero-emission vehicles with an easy sign-up process as well as no credit checks, upfront costs, or deposit needed. Other services include regular maintenance, MOT, vehicle insurance, health insurance and a dedicated customer success team, a product offering not matched by any other company partnered with Uber’s Clean Air Plan.

In addition, Moove customers driving with Uber can reduce their weekly payments by using funds raised through Uber’s Clean Air Plan to help them meet the cost of switching to an EV. Uber’s Clean Air Plan has raised over £145 million, equating to approximately £3,000 per driver. Moove estimates that the 10,000 EVs it plans to finance by 2025 in London will contribute a reduction of around 63,000 megatonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

Ladi Delano, co-founder and co-CEO at Moove, said: “We are proud to have built a business in Africa to now be able to scale our model here in Europe, which is something that no other African fintech company has done before. This also marks a milestone of firsts for us; as we are excited to be launching with our first 100% EV fleet. We are thrilled to be expanding our partnership with Uber to drive our commitments towards the electrification of mobility.”

Andrew Brem, general manager at Uber UK, said: “Our aim at Uber is to become a 100% electric platform in London by 2025 and we understand that drivers need access to financing if they want to make the transition to an electric vehicle. Moove’s model will help more Uber drivers switch to pure electric faster, to reduce their running costs and help clean up London’s air. With demand from riders higher than ever, our partnership with Moove will benefit drivers and riders alike.”

Driving the electrification of mobility

Moove aims to solve many of the pain points facing its customers when switching to an electric car over a petrol or diesel-powered vehicle. Moove has launched the first end-to-end charge experience and complete EV charging network app specifically for ride-hailing drivers called Moove Charge. 

The app enables Moove customers to locate, control, and pay for charging across one of the largest roaming networks in London, covering over 6,600 slow, fast and rapid charge points. Altogether, this provides a better and easier experience for drivers as well as riders as it enables more electric cars to be on the road and reduced wait times for Uber’s growing customer base.

This follows Moove’s recent fund raise of $20 million received from Absa Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB), boosting its total funding raised since inception in 2020, to over $200 million.

Providing revenue-based financing to mobility entrepreneurs and offering accessible vehicle financing exclusively to drivers on Uber’s platform, Moove has expanded beyond the African continent to Asia, starting with Indian cities such as Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bangalore. 

In what is envisaged to be one of Uber’s mega fleet partnerships in India, Moove aims to launch 5,000 CNG and electric vehicles within the first year. The company plans to scale to 30,000 vehicles over the next five years, creating sustainable work opportunities in a rapidly developing economy.

Founded in 2020, Moove was launched to democratise access to vehicle ownership. The company embeds its alternative credit scoring technology onto ride-hailing platforms and leverages proprietary performance and revenue analytics to underwrite loans to drivers who have previously been excluded from financial services. Moove provides vehicle financing to mobility entrepreneurs to purchase brand new vehicles using a percentage of their weekly revenue.

Over the past two years, Moove has enabled sustainable job creation and a path to asset ownership with its customers having completed over 5 million trips in Moove-financed vehicles across four countries. With over 600,000 drivers on Uber in India, the launch will unlock the perfect opportunity for Moove to provide accessible financing to thousands of drivers to help them become more productive and grow their businesses.

Ladi Delano, co-Founder and co-CEO at Moove, said, “As our first global expansion outside of Africa, launching in India is a very special moment for the whole Moove team.

We’re excited to be expanding our revenue-based vehicle financing model to enable the sustainable creation of jobs across the country, where there are some of the lowest vehicle ownership rates in the world, in part because of the lack of access to credit. We are delighted to be expanding our Uber partnership to solve this problem for our new customers in India.”

Binod Mishra, Regional GM for South Asia at Moove, said, “We’re looking forward to working closely with the Uber India team to roll out Moove’s innovative platform, starting in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore, and scaling up to many more cities over the next five years.”

Abhilekh Kumar, Director, Business Development, Uber India South Asia, also stated that Moove has created an innovative “rent to own” model that provides a flexible option for drivers who want to get into the business of ride-hailing without having to borrow from car owners or take bank loans to finance cars brought from dealerships. 

“We are excited to partner with Moove and work together to unlock growth as we witness a resurgent post-pandemic demand in India. The addition of new cars will help provide superior customer experience to riders while creating sustainable earning opportunities for drivers on the Uber platform,” he noted.

Moove is now bringing its impact-led model to India, its first expansion outside of Africa, as part of its mission to close the finance gap for mobility entrepreneurs globally. 

Moove aims to be a global leader in the electrification of ride-hailing and mobility with a commitment to ensuring that 60% of the vehicles it finances globally are hybrid or electric. India has recently set targets for improving renewable energy uptake and reducing harmful emissions by 2030, creating the perfect market opportunity for Moove to provide accessible financing for fuel-efficient and electric vehicles.

The startup’s latest funding will be used for its South Africa operations to strengthen its expanding vehicle financing offering to more customers.

Launched in 2020 by Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi, Moove is democratising vehicle ownership across Africa by providing mobility entrepreneurs access to revenue-based financing in markets with low access to credit.

Using its alternative credit scoring technology, Moove provides vehicle financing to its customers to purchase brand new vehicles using a percentage of their weekly revenue. Having experienced overwhelming demand and exponential growth across its six sub-Saharan African markets, Moove-financed vehicles have completed over 5 million trips to date.

The mobility space in Africa is highly fragmented and informal, and the sector represents an opportunity in a continent where high unemployment is rife. According to Statistics South Africa, over a third of South Africans were reported as unemployed during the first quarter of 2022, reaching a record 35.3% in Q4 2021.

Moove will continue to scale its revenue-based vehicle financing model in South Africa, creating more jobs for mobility entrepreneurs to earn a living and own their vehicle.

Moove’s CEO and Co-founder, Ladi Delano, says, “At Moove, we pride ourselves on being a mission-led company that empowers its customers to earn their way to asset ownership through a sustainable source of employment. In Absa, we’re delighted to have the funding which will enable us to serve more Africans looking for a path to economic prosperity.”

“For decades, they’ve transformed the livelihoods of millions through access to financial services, making them an ideal partner for Moove to tackle this same mission in South Africa. With this new funding we’re strongly positioned to unlock new opportunities for mobility entrepreneurs across South Africa, helping them generate income and ultimately driving the economy forward.”

Despite Africa’s status as the world’s fastest-growing continent, it has the lowest per capita car ownership rate, with over 1 billion Africans having limited or no access to vehicle financing.

Moove has emerged as part of a new generation of African-born fintechs to lead the charge in the “mobility fintech” sector. This white space addresses the continent’s acute vehicle financing problem and empowers mobility entrepreneurs to become more productive and successful.

Morne Visagie, Head of Structured Asset Finance at Absa CIB says, “We are delighted to close this complex transaction with Moove, which has been an exciting journey over 18 months. This transaction enables the conventionally unbanked to gain access to finance, enjoy the benefits of their efforts and build a brighter future in a sustainable way.”

Moove is Uber’s largest fleet vehicle supply partner in EMEA and has partnerships with several other mobility marketplaces, including Glovo, Swvl, Sendy, and Kobo360 across ride-hailing, trucking & logistics, last-mile delivery and mass transit. Since its initial launch in 2020, Moove has rapidly expanded to 13 cities across three continents.

With deliveries already commenced, the alliance marks a major breakthrough in bridging the continent’s gap of new vehicles, and Moove is firmly positioned to rapidly expand its fleet, leveraging CFAO’s local presence and extensive network to accelerate the delivery of brand-new vehicles to customers keen to start their entrepreneurial journey with the company.

Moove, the exclusive vehicle financing and vehicle supply partner for Uber in sub-Saharan Africa, has amassed more than 50% month-over-month growth since launch and through its new agreement, will now be able to provide a range of Suzuki cars including the Alto, Swift, Celerio, Baleno, Dzire and SPresso models across Ghana and Nigeria to strengthen its drive to provide new, fuel-efficient vehicles across Africa at scale.

With the continent home to the lowest per capita vehicle ownership rate in the world, Moove’s flexible Drive to Own product is also set to provide prospective drivers with an invaluable opportunity to work towards owning the vehicles in 30, 36 or 48 months by paying a percentage of their weekly income and have the ability to access other financial services through the Moove app.

Speaking on the new partnership, Ladi Delano, co-founder and CEO of Moove, stated: “Since our launch in July 2020, we’ve found tremendous traction across all of our markets and as we enter a new phase of growth, the importance of a local, pan-African supplier such as CFAO who can equip us to quickly respond to the needs of our customers simply can’t be understated. We’re especially proud to be working alongside the largest automotive distribution network in Africa and as a result of this, we’re now in an even stronger position to empower a new generation of successful and productive mobility entrepreneurs.”

Through its partnership with CFAO Motors, Moove can now provide cars to its customers more quickly, addressing the continued surge in demand from ride-hailing marketplaces. 

In order to address the environmental concerns surrounding the automotive sector, Moove has also committed to ensure at least 60% of vehicles it finances are EVs or hybrid models. As a result of the agreement, Moove customers will also have access to after-sales support, including repairs and maintenance, enabling them to keep their vehicles in safe, top-quality condition for a longer lifespan.

Marc Hirschfeld, CEO of CFAO Automotive division said: “CFAO is pleased to be part of this mobility partnership in helping to democratise vehicle ownership. We are convinced that prospective Moove customers will get the most out of their investment as the vehicles are easy to service and maintain. Suzuki is a key vehicle manufacturer we supply at the domestic CFAO dealership in many countries across Africa”.

Drivers can sign up to register their interest through Moove’s website and before accessing the vehicles, all drivers’ must have their details assessed and verified by Moove as well as undergo training before vehicles are assigned.

Co-founded in 2019 by serial entrepreneurs, Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi, Moove is a mission-led company that’s committed to providing mobility entrepreneurs access to affordable vehicle financing and ensuring that 50 per cent of its customers are women. 

It also aims to ensure that at least 60 percent of the vehicles it finances are electric or hybrid vehicles as part of its commitment to improving road safety and vehicle emissions on Africa’s roads. To date, Moove-financed cars have completed over 2.6 million trips with over 30 million kilometres travelled across 6 markets which include Lagos, Accra, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Nairobi and Ibadan.

In February 2022, Moove announced a $10 million financing from NBK Capital Partners, bringing its total funds raised to date to $78 million.