Since its launch in 2018 as a ride-hailing service in Togo, Gozem has steadily expanded throughout French-speaking West Africa, integrating a variety of providers because it sought to grow to be a super-app. The corporate now affords ride-hailing, commerce, car financing, and digital banking throughout Togo, Benin, Gabon, and Cameroon.
Now, in a bid to scale its ecosystem, Gozem has raised $30 million in a Sequence B funding spherical — $15 million in fairness and $15 million in debt — led by SAS Transport Businesses Providers and Al Mada Ventures. The corporate will use the funds to bolster its car financing service, and foray into new markets.
In keeping with the startup’s founders Gregory Costamagna and Raphael Dana, Gozem units itself other than different ride-hailing and car financing platforms by ensuring its drivers are financially safe and may entry profession progress alternatives.
Gozem’s ride-hailing service covers bikes, three-wheelers and automobiles, whereas its car financing product is aimed toward serving to its drivers buy automobiles. It additionally lets employees on its platform make meals and grocery deliveries as a part of its e-commerce enterprise.
“Our main client is the professional driver,” Costamagna informed TechCrunch. “We build an ecosystem to help drivers earn more money and evolve in their lives. If they’re successful, our entire business is successful.”
When we lined Gozem’s $5 million Sequence A in 2021, it had simply piloted its car financing mannequin, partnering with native banks and deploying over 1,500 automobiles that 12 months. Since then, the corporate has collaborated with worldwide lenders and the Worldwide Finance Company (IFC) and now funds round 7,000 automobiles.
To draw drivers to its platform, the corporate purchases automobiles utilizing a mixture of debt and fairness, and drivers pays for these automobiles in installments. As an alternative of requiring upfront deposits, Gozem recoups prices by small deductions from drivers’ every day earnings. Uber-backed Moove, Asaak and MAX additionally supply car financing merchandise to drivers in numerous markets.
Gozem mentioned its program ensures that funds stay reasonably priced relative to the motive force’s common earnings.
“We explain to all our drivers that this is a long-term journey,” Costamagna mentioned. “We finance their motorcycle, [but then they can upgrade to a [three-wheeler], then a car, eventually becoming full vehicle owners.”
The founders mentioned a good portion of the debt raised is slated for Gozem’s car financing vertical. The corporate can be working to boost one other $20 million within the coming months to assist its enlargement throughout Francophone Africa over the subsequent two years.
The super-app play
Many fintech and mobility platforms have tried to combine various providers below one tremendous app, however the mannequin hasn’t all the time been profitable. In Sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, cost apps which have tried to evolve into tremendous apps, like SoftBank-backed Opay, have seen little success.
Gozem, nonetheless, is seeing traction due to an strategy that’s just like Southeast Asian supply and ride-hail giants Seize and Gojek. A few of its rivals, like BOND-backed Yassir and MNT-Halan, have additionally explored related fashions in Africa throughout the Maghreb area and Egypt to some success.
At the moment, the corporate has practically 10,000 registered drivers, and greater than 1,000,000 customers have used its platform to date. It says its month-to-month customers quantity within the lots of of 1000’s.
Along with its core providers, Gozem has seen some progress in digital ticketing, which is a part of its commerce division. The corporate resells occasion tickets throughout its markets, and says it has processed greater than 50,000 tickets in Togo alone for main concert events and occasions.
The corporate additionally forayed into digital banking (Gozem Cash) by way of the acquisition of Moneex in 2023. The service, at the moment reside in Togo, lets customers make cellular funds, and based on the corporate, processes tens of millions of {dollars} every day.
Earlier than this newest Sequence B, Gozem recorded run-rate gross merchandise worth of $50 million throughout its three product verticals. Dana mentioned the corporate expects to triple or quadruple its progress in 2025 with the brand new capital.
He famous that the Sequence B funding spherical validates Gozem’s mannequin, given the combination of business and monetary providers traders becoming a member of its cap desk. SAS Transport Businesses Providers is a part of MSC Group, one in every of Africa’s largest container terminal operators, whereas Al Mada Ventures is the enterprise arm of pan-African monetary providers conglomerate Al Mada.
“It’s validation because we have investors operating on the ground in the same markets where we operate,” mentioned Dana.
