Moove joins Africa’s unicorn club with a US$2.1 billion infrastructure bet

Lagos-founded mobility company Moove has become Africa’s newest unicorn after raising US$250 million in a Series C round, valuing the company at US$2.1 billion. The deal is the largest single funding round announced by an African startup so far in 2026.

The new valuation places Moove among the continent’s most valuable startups at a time when African venture funding remains under pressure.

The funding round was led by Mubadala Investment Company and co-led by Woven Capital, Toyota’s growth fund, and Ion Pacific. New investors included BlueCrest Capital Management, Sona Asset Management, and The Raptor Group, while existing backers such as BlackRock, MUFG, Franklin Templeton, Uber, and Endeavor Catalyst increased their participation.

The capital will fund Moove’s expansion into autonomous vehicle infrastructure, including fleet ownership and robotics-first depot facilities where self-driving vehicles are charged, serviced, maintained, and coordinated for continuous operation.

“Every major technology revolution becomes an infrastructure race,” said Ladi Delano, Moove’s co-founder and chairman. “The internet required data centres. AI required compute. Autonomy requires fleets, charging, maintenance, data systems and 24/7 operations in every city, and that is what Moove is building.”

The company’s trajectory has been rapid. Founded in 2020 by Delano and Jide Odunsi, Moove began by financing vehicles for ride-hailing drivers who could not access traditional credit. Drivers repaid the vehicles through a share of their daily earnings, allowing the company to build a fleet-financing model that could scale beyond conventional banking systems.

That model has since evolved into a much larger operational platform. Moove now operates about 42,000 vehicles across 29 cities in 13 countries and employs roughly 3,300 people globally. It has expanded through acquisitions, including Brazilian fleet operator Kovi and Tokyo Taxi in Japan, and reports annual recurring revenue of US$420 million.

The scale of that expansion helps explain the valuation jump. Moove was valued at US$750 million during its US$100 million Series B round led by Uber in 2024. Two years later, it has almost tripled that valuation while expanding across Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, Europe, and North America.

The company’s partnership with Waymo has become a central part of that story. Moove already manages autonomous vehicle fleets in Phoenix and Miami, with operations announced for London.

The business has shifted from financing human-driven ride-hailing vehicles to operating the physical infrastructure that autonomous fleets require.

Like many of Africa’s highest-valued startups, Moove is increasingly being valued for infrastructure rather than software.

The continent’s leading unicorns, including Flutterwave, OPay, Wave and Interswitch, built payment networks, digital banking platforms and financial infrastructure that became embedded in everyday economic activity.

Moove is applying a similar infrastructure logic to mobility through fleet ownership, charging networks, maintenance operations and autonomous vehicle management across multiple continents.

Its competitive advantage is rooted in operational execution and distribution at scale. The company is building systems that keep vehicles moving across cities, maintain fleets, manage logistics and coordinate autonomous operations.

That kind of physical and operational infrastructure is becoming a valuable asset as autonomous mobility moves from experimentation to commercial deployment.

The timing makes the deal particularly significant.

African startup funding remains weak across most indicators. According to Africa: The Big Deal, startups raised US$1.46 billion between January and July 2026, down 27% from the same period in 2025. Only 241 startups raised at least US$100,000 during the period, compared with 302 a year earlier.

July was especially subdued. African startups raised US$102 million during the month, 60% below the previous 12-month monthly average. Equity funding totaled only US$25 million, the lowest monthly equity total since April 2019.

Against that backdrop, Moove’s US$250 million raise stands out sharply. It is a rare example of global institutional capital backing an African-founded company during a period of reduced venture activity.

The deal also reinforces a broader shift in Africa’s startup ecosystem. Fintech has traditionally dominated investment, but logistics and transport have emerged as one of the continent’s largest funding sectors.

According to Africa: The Big Deal, fintech attracted US$556 million, or 41% of startup funding, in the first half of 2026, while logistics and transport attracted US$472 million, or 35%. Together, the two sectors accounted for 76% of all startup funding raised during the period.

That concentration suggests investors are increasingly backing companies that combine technology with physical assets, operational execution and infrastructure ownership.

Mubadala described the investment as a bet on the infrastructure required for autonomous mobility to move from innovation to large-scale deployment.

“As autonomous mobility moves from innovation to scaled deployment, the infrastructure supporting it becomes increasingly important,” said Ali Eid AlMheiri, executive director of diversified assets at Mubadala’s UAE Investments Platform.

The company’s evolution also reflects a broader trend among African startups that are exporting operational capabilities rather than simply expanding geographically.

Tyme has taken its digital banking model into Southeast Asia. Spiro has expanded electric mobility infrastructure across multiple African markets. Moove has taken fleet operations and mobility infrastructure into Brazil, Japan, the UAE, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The company’s origins remain important to that story.

“We started in Lagos with a simple insight: mobility demand is abundant, but supply cannot scale unless capital, technology and operations move together,” according to Delano. “Five years later, that insight has evolved into a global platform.”