Moove, the Lagos-founded mobility startup, has raised $250mn in a Series C funding round at a $2.1bn valuation, led by Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company, as it accelerates its transition from financing human-driven vehicles to building the physical infrastructure required for scaled robotaxi operations.
The Series C was co-led by Woven Capital, Toyota’s growth fund, and Ion Pacific. New investors BlueCrest Capital Management, Sona Asset Management and The Raptor Group participated, alongside a roster of existing backers comprising Uber, BlackRock, MUFG, Franklin Templeton, Left Lane, Silverbacks Holdings, Square Associates, The Latest Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst and the Ontario Power Generation Pension Plan.
The fundraising comes as the autonomous vehicle industry shifts focus from software breakthroughs to the logistical challenge of managing fleets at scale. Moove is positioning itself as an independent operator of what it calls “Nests” — robotics-first depots where driverless vehicles are charged, serviced, maintained and orchestrated for continuous operation.
The company plans to grow its autonomous vehicle workforce by more than 220 per cent, from approximately 150 employees today to roughly 500 by the end of the year. The new capital will also support market launches globally.
Founded in 2020 by Ladi Delano and Jide Odunsi, Moove initially financed vehicles for ride-hailing drivers in African markets on a revenue-based model, addressing a credit gap where only a fraction of new cars on the continent are bought with financing. From an initial 76 vehicles in Lagos, it now operates about 42,000 vehicles across 29 cities in 13 countries. The company employs 3,300 people and generates $420mn in annual recurring revenue, having expanded through acquisitions including Kovi in Brazil and Tokyo Taxi in Japan. It is Uber’s largest global fleet partner.
The autonomous business began in December 2024, when Waymo named Moove its fleet operations partner for Phoenix and Miami — the company’s first US market and first AV work. Moove took responsibility for fleet operations, facilities and charging infrastructure for Waymo’s electric fleet, with London confirmed as the first international expansion.
That work is capital-intensive. Moove raised more than $1bn in debt last year specifically to finance vehicles for the Waymo partnership, a structure that positions it to own an autonomous fleet while Waymo concentrates on the driving technology itself.
“Every major technology revolution becomes an infrastructure race,” said Delano, co-founder and co-chief executive. “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.”
For Mubadala, which first backed Moove in 2023, the round fits a pattern of backing infrastructure platforms with a UAE anchor. The sovereign investor previously participated in a $76mn package of equity and debt, framing the company at the time as a mobility fintech serving what Mubadala’s Faris Sohail Al Mazrui called a “hugely underbanked and underserved market”.
“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. “Mubadala is investing in enabling infrastructure and scalable platforms like Moove that support economic diversification and strengthen the UAE’s role as a hub for advanced technologies.”
The model gives Moove revenue from financing, fleet ownership and maintenance simultaneously, but it also requires significant upfront capital for real estate, charging equipment and personnel in every market it enters. While the company has built a leading position in third-party AV fleet operations through its partnership with Waymo — with live operations in Phoenix and Miami and a planned launch in London — its reliance on a small number of large partners, including Uber and Waymo, remains a key factor in its growth trajectory.
Betty Lee, principal at Woven Capital, said Moove had demonstrated “exceptional ability to execute across markets”, adding that “the next wave of mobility is an infrastructure problem as much as a software one”.
Moove has now raised more than $500mn in equity and debt since its founding, according to company disclosures. The Series C marks a bet that the primary bottleneck for autonomous mobility is no longer the software that drives the cars, but the physical infrastructure required to keep them on the road at scale.