Moove over: Africa has a new unicorn 🦄
The announcement of its $250m Series C puts the Nigerian-born company among the continent’s most valuable private tech ventures
Moove has joined Africa’s unicorn club. The Nigerian-born, now UAE-headquartered mobility company announced a $250m Series C a few days ago, valuing the company at $2.1b. The round was led by Mubadala, and co-led by Woven Capital and Ion Pacific. The valuation jump is significant, as the last shared valuation was $750m in 2024. That puts it in the top three most valuable African private tech ventures, at least among those with a recently disclosed valuation, behind fintechs Flutterwave ($3.2b) and OPay ($3.1b). It also makes Moove one of the fastest African start-ups to reach unicorn status (launched in 2020, unicorn by 2026), especially in recent years.
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The Series C is the second largest equity round recorded by an African start-up so far in 2026, just behind Spiro’s $270m announced in June. Combined, they represent 44% of all the equity funding raised on the continent in 2026, as of August 10. Before Spiro and Moove, we have to go as far back as December 2024, more than a year and a half ago, to find such a large ticket: with Tyme’s $250m Series D. Moove has now raised around half a billion in equity and $180m+ in debt, nearly $700m in total. Only MNT-Halan (˜$1.2b) and Sun King (˜$900m) have raised more in equity and debt combined.
While African unicorn creation is still rare, Moove’s round shows that when the right mix of growth, global expansion and deep-pocketed strategic capital comes together, the market can still produce very large outcomes. On the back of Spiro’s June raise, it also signals that heavy hitters might look less and less like classic software (or even AI) start-ups and more like capital-intensive infrastructure platforms, as we saw in the energy space before. Infrastructure eats capital…
As always, this analysis is based on our proprietary Africa: The Big Deal database, tracking $100k+ start-up deals across the continent, including both publicly disclosed rounds and deals shared confidentially by selected investors. If you want access to the full database, grab it here with a discount. Ciao! Max