Top mobility fintech backed by Uber, Moove, has acquired Kovi, a Brazilian urban mobility provider, as it boost its footprints outside Africa.
Moove, which offers vehicle financing to ride-hailing and delivery app drivers across six continents, will now wholly own Kovi.
According to the co-founder and chief executive of the firm, Mr Ladi Delano, the acquisition of the São Paulo-based startup marks a significant step toward the company’s goal of building the world’s largest ride-share fleet.
Also, the all share acquisition deal bumps the mobility fintech’s annual revenue to $275 million.
The news comes two months after Moove announced a partnership with Waymo to provide driverless vehicle fleet operations in two US cities, Phoenix and Miami.
Mr Delano said Moove’s fleet which began with 76 cars in Lagos, Nigeria, in 2020 has now grown to 36,000 cars operating in 19 cities across six continents, with Latin America now emerging as a key market.
Founded in 2018, Y Combinator-backed Kovi launched to make vehicle ownership more accessible in Brazil.
The Moove acquisition will unite both companies which seek to tackle the same challenge—providing financing solutions for ride-share drivers.
As the parties await regulatory approval, Kovi will continue to operate under its brand while its executive and management teams will remain unchanged.
While Moove will keep the Kovi brand operating in its existing markets, Brazil and Mexico, there are plans to expand further across Latin America.
Moove recently launched operations in three cities across Colombia and Mexico.
According to Mr Delano,, the acquisition further cements Moove’s position in Latin America, giving the company a major foothold in Brazil, the region’s largest ride-hail market.
“Kovi is one of the top two players in Brazil. So we have not just entered or strengthened our presence in the Latin American market but also put ourselves in a top two position in the largest single market in Latin America through this acquisition,” he said in an interview with TechCrunch.
Moove will also push its flagship Drive-to-Own product, a taxi and employment model, and an emerging autonomous vehicle (AV) business line involving AI-driven mobility.
According to Mr Delano, Kovi’s proprietary technology and algorithms will “complement and strengthen our existing move AI mobility strategy and ensure that we can start to deliver an improved service and product to our customers around the world.”
In a statement, Kovi CEO, Mr Adhemar Milani Neto, expressed confidence in the deal. “I met the founders [Moove’s Delano and Jide Odunsi] 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.”
Moove raised a $100 million Uber-led Series B last year at a $750 million valuation. The mobility fintech has secured over $500 million in debt and equity from backers like Mubadala, BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, Janus Henderson, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC, World Bank) since its launch five years ago.