A Mauritius-based investment firm has made its largest-ever commitment to an Africa-founded technology company, pouring a cumulative $37m into global mobility operator Moove and amassing a stake now worth $62m following a $250m funding round that valued the group at $2.1bn.

Silverbacks Holdings, which started building its position during Moove’s early funding rounds, said the exposure marked one of the biggest single institutional capital deployments into an African-born tech start-up to date. The latest follow-on investment came as part of a Series C round led by Abu Dhabi sovereign investor Mubadala, and co-led by Toyota’s growth fund Woven Capital and Asia-based merchant bank Ion Pacific. Existing backers Uber, BlackRock and Franklin Templeton also participated.

Moove, which was founded in 2020 by Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi, finances, owns and operates productive mobility assets for leading ride-hailing and autonomous vehicle platforms. Headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, the company has scaled rapidly to an annualised recurring revenue of $420m within five years, operating roughly 42,000 vehicles across 29 cities in 13 countries spanning five continents. It is Uber’s largest global fleet partner and has become a significant third-party operator of autonomous vehicle fleets through a partnership with Waymo, with live or announced operations in Phoenix, Miami, Las Vegas and London.

For Silverbacks, the Moove position is the latest marker in a run that the firm says has produced an average cash-on-cash return of 15.8 times in fintech, and comes directly after its tenth portfolio exit — the acquisition of open banking start-up Mono by fellow Silverbacks portfolio company Flutterwave. The numbers, while not independently audited, reflect a strategy of concentrated bets on what the firm calls “dominant, tech-enabled platforms born in Africa that can scale to the rest of the world”.

Ibrahim Sagna, executive chairman of Silverbacks Holdings, described Moove as “a true ‘silverback’ in the global mobility space” — a reference to the firm’s name and its preference for backing large, commanding players. “Over the last six years, as we were expanding the company across the globe, they systematically scaled up their investments into our business — round after round,” said Moove co-founder and co-chief executive Ladi Delano. “We appreciate their partnership and look forward to building on what we’ve achieved together.”

The Moove round underscores how Africa-founded technology companies are drawing increasingly deep pools of global capital, with sovereign funds and strategic corporate investors joining traditional venture and growth equity names. The presence of Mubadala and Toyota’s Woven Capital — the latter focused on the future of mobility — signals conviction that Moove’s model of financing fleets for manned and autonomous transport can succeed in multiple jurisdictions.

For Silverbacks, the transaction also points to the growing muscle of specialist African institutional investors. The firm, founded in 2019, has moved beyond early-stage fintech — where it has produced a string of exits — and is broadening its scope across the continent’s creative economy. It recently raised fresh capital for its sports platform from Hollywood actor and director Boris Kodjoe and South African producer Pepsi Pokane, adding to an advisory board that already includes musician Mr Eazi and entertainment executive Sandy Climan.

At a $2.1bn valuation, Silverbacks’ $62m holding represents just under 3 per cent of Moove’s equity, a paper gain built over multiple rounds of conviction buying. Whether the full value is realised will depend on Moove’s continued execution in a capital-intensive industry and, eventually, on an exit path that rewards early believers. For now, the investment stands as the firm’s largest single bet on an African-born operator — and a signal that homegrown institutional capital is willing to write cheques that match its global ambitions.