Moove, an African mobility fintech startup, has announced its launch in Cape Town, South Africa; as part of its growth plans across the continent.
The expansion marks the fourth city in which Moove has launched within only 15 months of operations, and coincides with five new hires for Moove’s global C-suite and the milestone of completing one million Uber trips in Moove-financed cars.
The rollout in Cape Town follows Moove’s recent $23m Series A funding and builds on existing operations in Johannesburg, Lagos and Accra, with a goal of democratizing vehicle ownership across Africa.
Plans are set to establish a presence in more locations over the coming months, and the choice of the second city in South Africa reflects a population approaching 60 million people of which 67% live in urban areas.
Co-founded in 2019 by serial entrepreneurs, Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi, Moove embeds its alternative credit-scoring technology onto ride-hailing and e-logistics platforms.
As Uber’s exclusive vehicle financing and vehicle supply partner in sub-Saharan Africa, reaching one million trips comes at a time when Moove is seeing a significant uptick in sign-ups. To date, there have been more than 12,900 sign-ups across the continent.
“We’ve only been operating in South Africa for four months, but it’s an excellent market with huge demand for our product,” said Sinako Cetyiwe, South Africa Country Manager for Moove.
“The next phase for Cape Town and the rest of the country is to grow our sign-ups, revenue, and trips so that we can empower more South Africans to become mobility entrepreneurs and earn a living in safe, new vehicles.”
This period of growth has also enabled Moove to boost its leadership team, bringing in several new hires to the C-suite to oversee the launch in new markets, deepen the technology, and secure partnerships across other vehicle categories.
Notably, Caroline Hazlehurst joins as President of Operations, Ammar Naqvi as Chief Technology, Youssef Ouyhya as Chief Data Officer, Tuvia Rosenthal as Chief Product Officer, and Quinten Indarjith as Chief Fleet Officer.
The new executives with collective experience at Amazon, Bird, Career, Facebook, Google, and Toyota will work alongside existing senior leadership comprised of Tayo Oyegunle, Chief Operations Officer Africa, Tingting Peng, Head of Capital Partnerships & ESG, Andries Hugo, Head of Finance Africa, and Oyinade Osobajo, Head of Marketing Africa.
“With consistent 60% month-on-month growth since we launched in Lagos in mid-2020, I’m proud of our team for getting us to four markets in just 15 months.,” added Ladi Delano, Co-Founder and CEO.
“We are super excited about our new team members, who, alongside our existing Moovers, will undoubtedly continue to help us attract more diverse talent as we look to build a dynamic, fun, and rewarding place to work.”
