Since its launch in 2018 as a ride-hailing service in Togo, Gozem has steadily expanded across French-speaking West Africa, integrating a wide range of services as it sought to become a super-app. The company now offers ride-hailing, commerce, vehicle financing, and digital banking across Togo, Benin, Gabon, and Cameroon.
Now, in a bid to scale its ecosystem, Gozem has raised $30 million in a Series B funding round — $15 million in equity and $15 million in debt — led by SAS Shipping Agencies Services and Al Mada Ventures. The company will use the funds to bolster its vehicle financing service, and foray into new markets.
According to the startup’s founders Gregory Costamagna and Raphael Dana, Gozem sets itself apart from other ride-hailing and vehicle financing platforms by making sure its drivers are financially secure and can access career growth opportunities.
Gozem’s ride-hailing service covers motorcycles, three-wheelers and cars, while its vehicle financing product is aimed at helping its drivers purchase vehicles. It also lets workers on its platform make food and grocery deliveries as part of its e-commerce business.
“Our main client is the professional driver,” Costamagna told 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 covered Gozem’s $5 million Series A in 2021, it had just piloted its vehicle financing model, partnering with local banks and deploying over 1,500 vehicles that year. Since then, the company has collaborated with international lenders and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and now finances around 7,000 vehicles.
To attract drivers to its platform, the company purchases vehicles using a mix of debt and equity, and drivers can pay for these vehicles in installments. Instead of requiring upfront deposits, Gozem recoups costs through small deductions from drivers’ daily earnings. Uber-backed Moove, Asaak and MAX also offer vehicle financing products to drivers in different markets.
Gozem said its program ensures that payments remain affordable relative to the driver’s average earnings.
“We explain to all our drivers that this is a long-term journey,” Costamagna said. “We finance their motorcycle, [but then they can upgrade to a [three-wheeler], then a car, eventually becoming full vehicle owners.”
The founders said a significant portion of the debt raised is slated for Gozem’s vehicle financing vertical. The company is also working to raise another $20 million in the coming months to support its expansion across Francophone Africa over the next two years.
The super-app play
Many fintech and mobility platforms have attempted to integrate diverse services under one super app, but the model hasn’t always been successful. In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, payment apps that have attempted to evolve into super apps, like SoftBank-backed Opay, have seen little success.
Gozem, however, is seeing traction thanks to an approach that’s similar to Southeast Asian delivery and ride-hail giants Grab and Gojek. Some of its rivals, like BOND-backed Yassir and MNT-Halan, have also explored similar models in Africa across the Maghreb region and Egypt to some success.
Currently, the company has nearly 10,000 registered drivers, and more than a million users have used its platform so far. It says its monthly users number in the hundreds of thousands.
In addition to its core services, Gozem has seen some growth in digital ticketing, which is part of its commerce division. The company resells event tickets across its markets, and says it has processed more than 50,000 tickets in Togo alone for major concerts and events.
The company also forayed into digital banking (Gozem Money) via the acquisition of Moneex in 2023. The service, currently live in Togo, lets users make mobile payments, and according to the company, processes millions of dollars daily.
Before this latest Series B, Gozem recorded run-rate gross merchandise value of $50 million across its three product verticals. Dana said the company expects to triple or quadruple its growth in 2025 with the new capital.
He noted that the Series B funding round validates Gozem’s model, given the mix of industrial and financial services investors joining its cap table. SAS Shipping Agencies Services is part of MSC Group, one of Africa’s largest container terminal operators, while Al Mada Ventures is the venture arm of pan-African financial services conglomerate Al Mada.
“It’s validation because we have investors operating on the ground in the same markets where we operate,” said Dana.
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