Moove, an African mobility fintech, has launched operations in Nairobi, its first city in East Africa and sixth on the continent.
To expand its vehicle and product offerings to customers, the revenue-based vehicle financing company has partnered with Uber to allow ride-hailing and delivery drivers to purchase motorcycles for Uber Connect, UberEats deliveries, and UberBoda trips.
In addition, following its recent partnership with pan-African e-logistics platform, Lori Systems, Moove has expanded its logistics vehicle offering with Kenyan fulfillment and last-mile logistics company, Sendy.
“Kenya already has a thriving mobility and entrepreneurial industry for us to tap into and roll out our financing solutions, so we’re very excited to be launching into Nairobi, our sixth market in 18 months,” Ladi Delano, Co-Founder and CEO of Moove, said.
As one of the biggest economies across Africa, the company’s move into Kenya serves as a gateway to other East African markets.
“We are excited to continue our expansion, having achieved over 50%+ MoM growth since launch,” Delano added.
A big step for Moove
Entering the East African market allows Moove to drive closer to its goal of democratizing vehicle ownership by providing revenue-based vehicle financing across Africa.
With Kenya’s lending costs almost twice that of South Africa’s and the average loan deposit standing at 10% – 30%, affordability is still an issue for entrepreneurs who lack a credit history, a typical financing hurdle on the continent.
Moove will use the market opportunity to enable drivers to leverage its alternative credit-scoring technology and gain access to brand new vehicles which creates more good job opportunities within the mobility industry.
Moove recently received the IFC Corporate Award, as one of the top 20 most impactful and transformational companies in their portfolio that is applying an innovative and scalable solution towards solving a continent-wide problem.
According to Ladi Delano, “this further validates that our model is really working, in getting customers to the virtuous path of vehicle ownership, and by doing so, we are creating employment and income opportunities for these mobility entrepreneurs.”
On the back of the recent launch of its first two-wheeler bike product, Moove Xpress, in Lagos, Moove is expanding the new vehicle class to East Africa. As a result of the partnership with Uber, drivers in Nairobi will have access to Moove Xpress bikes for UberConnect (peer-to-peer delivery), UberBoda trips, and UberEats food deliveries.
Drivers will be empowered by Moove’s vehicle financing solution, which gives them the flexibility to increase their earnings and productivity.
Woes of the two-wheeler hailing market
Currently estimated at $80 billion, the two-wheeler hailing market in Sub-Saharan Africa is plagued by a lack of access to new vehicles as well as a lack of regulation for both drivers and riders.
What’s more, a study in Ghana indicated that up to 70% of two-wheeler taxi drivers did not own the two-wheelers they used, and 56% said the same in Uganda.
Despite these limitations, the two-wheeler ride-hailing market is expected to grow in the coming years. This is due to the growth in the bike last-mile food and delivery industry across the continent, especially in Kenya, which is projected to reach a value of $580 million by 2025.
For one thing, between 2018 and 2020, fewer than 33,000 commercial vehicles were sold in Kenya compared to more than 330,000 sold in the UK in just 2020 alone.
Moving into East Africa
Moove is growing its reach in East Africa, in order to increase asset ownership of brand new motorbikes while ensuring regulatory compliance in the sector, ultimately leveraging ride-hailing and delivery apps to boost revenue.
In addition, Moove has also signed a new partnership with Sendy, a Series B end-to-end logistics, retail, and freight company. The Sendy partnership expands Moove’s logistics vehicle offering following its recent partnership with Lori Systems to fuel the growth of Africa’s trucking and logistics industry.
Lack of financing for Africa trucking stands at less than 1%, acutely illustrating the size of the market opportunity for Moove in solving the problem of access to vehicle financing on the continent and addressing a similar supply constraint faced by many mobility and ride-hailing marketplaces.
More about Moove
Co-founded in 2019 by serial entrepreneurs, Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi, Moove provides asset-backed vehicle financing by embedding its alternative credit-scoring technology onto ride-hailing and e-logistics platforms.
Moove offers loans to customers by selling them new vehicles and financing up to 95% of the purchase price within five days of signing up.
Customers can choose to repay their loans over 12, 36, 48, or 60 months, paying a percentage of their weekly income through the Moove app, which manages all transactions and provides access to other financial products on the platform. To date, Moove-financed cars have completed over 1.6 million trips with over 20 million kilometers traveled across its markets.
