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 develop into a super-app. The corporate now gives ride-hailing, commerce, automobile 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 Delivery Businesses Providers and Al Mada Ventures. The corporate will use the funds to bolster its automobile financing service, and foray into new markets.
In line with the startup’s founders Gregory Costamagna and Raphael Dana, Gozem units itself aside from different ride-hailing and automobile financing platforms by ensuring its drivers are financially safe and might entry profession progress alternatives.
Gozem’s ride-hailing service covers bikes, three-wheelers and vehicles, whereas its automobile financing product is geared toward serving to its drivers buy automobiles. It additionally lets staff on its platform make meals and grocery deliveries as a part of its e-commerce enterprise.
“Our principal consumer is the skilled driver,” Costamagna informed TechCrunch. “We construct an ecosystem to assist drivers earn extra money and evolve of their lives. In the event that they’re profitable, our total enterprise is profitable.”
After we lined Gozem’s $5 million Sequence A in 2021, it had simply piloted its automobile financing mannequin, partnering with native banks and deploying over 1,500 automobiles that yr. 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’ each day earnings. Uber-backed Moove, Asaak and MAX additionally provide automobile financing merchandise to drivers in numerous markets.
Gozem stated its program ensures that funds stay reasonably priced relative to the motive force’s common earnings.
“We clarify to all our drivers that this can be a long-term journey,” Costamagna stated. “We finance their motorbike, [but then they can upgrade to a [three-wheeler], then a automotive, finally turning into full automobile house owners.”
The founders stated a good portion of the debt raised is slated for Gozem’s automobile financing vertical. The corporate can be working to lift one other $20 million within the coming months to help its growth throughout Francophone Africa over the following 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 at all times 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 because of 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 present, the corporate has practically 10,000 registered drivers, and greater than 1,000,000 customers have used its platform up to now. It says its month-to-month customers quantity within the lots of of hundreds.
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 live shows and occasions.
The corporate additionally forayed into digital banking (Gozem Cash) by way of the acquisition of Moneex in 2023. The service, at present reside in Togo, lets customers make cell funds, and in line with the corporate, processes thousands and thousands of {dollars} each day.
Earlier than this newest Sequence B, Gozem recorded run-rate gross merchandise worth of $50 million throughout its three product verticals. Dana stated 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 Delivery 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 as a result of we’ve traders working on the bottom in the identical markets the place we function,” stated Dana.