Mobility fintech Moove raises £15m to scale up UK operations

By Chisom Nwatu

Moove, world’s first mobility fintech and Uber’s largest vehicle supply partner in EMEA, has announced the raise of £15 million in debt financing from Emso Asset Management to scale up its UK operations following a successful launch in August.

The African-born, global mobility fintech, which was recently launched in London with a 100 percent EV fleet to improve the driver experience and accelerate the electrification of mobility in cities, said the financing facility will enable it to scale its UK operations with the aim of having 10,000 EVs on the roads by 2025,and become the largest EV partner on Uber’s platform in London.

The EV rent-to-buy model also provides mobility entrepreneurs access to brand-new, zero-emissions vehicles for a flat weekly fee.

The mobility fintech provides affordable vehicle financing to mobility entrepreneurs, enabling them to access new electric vehicles with no upfront costs or deposits.

Founded by entrepreneurs Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi, Moove was 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 has enabled sustainable job creation and a path to asset ownership, while its customers have completed over 9 million trips in Moove-financed vehicles, over the past two years.

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.

Ladi Delano, co-founder and co-CEO at Moove, said the financing facility came at a really exciting time for Moove, expressing the company’s commitments in resolving the challenges faced by mobility entrepreneurs.

“With our international expansion underway in the UK and India, we’ve already shown that affordable and accessible vehicle financing for mobility entrepreneurs is a global challenge and one we’re committed to solving at Moove. We’re looking forward to scaling up our operations in the UK to enable drivers to transition to electric vehicles to drive forward the electrification of mobility,” Delano said.

London is the global leader in Uber’s electrification efforts, with over 7,000 EVs on the platform the most of any Uber city. Moove’s London operations will enable Uber to progress towards its goal of becoming an all-electric platform in the capital by 2025.

According to Moove estimates, 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.

To enable this transition to EVs in London, Moove also launched Moove Charge, the first end-to-end charge experience and complete EV charging network app specifically for ride-hailing drivers.

The Moove Charge enables Moove customers to locate, control, and pay for charging across one of the largest roaming networks in London, covering over 7,000 slow, fast and rapid charge points, providing a better and easier experience for drivers as well as riders as it enables more electric cars to be on the road and also reduce wait times.