Nigeria loses another mobility giant as Moove exits weeks after Uber despite its $2.1 billion valuation and Waymo-backed US expansion

Nigeria-founded mobility company Moove is winding down its operations in the country, six years after launching in Lagos and barely five weeks after Uber, one of its investors, ended its Nigerian business.

• As part of its exit, eligible drivers in Nigeria will gain full ownership of their vehicles without further payments, totaling over ₦35 billion ($23.3 million) in value.
• Since its founding in 2020, Moove expanded rapidly, reaching a $2.1 billion valuation with over $710 million raised, and now operates 42,000 vehicles in 13 countries.
• The departures of SafeBoda, Hytch, Uber, and now Moove mark a significant retreat from Nigeria's mobility sector over the past five years.

Under the exit arrangement, eligible drivers will receive full ownership of vehicles worth more than ₦35 billion ($23.3 million) without making further payments, while Moove said more than 9,000 customers have used its Drive-to-Own and rental products in Nigeria.

Vehicles financed through the platform have generated about ₦57 billion ($38 million) in revenue, reflecting the scale of the company’s operations before its withdrawal.

Moove has not disclosed a specific reason for leaving Nigeria, but its decision comes about five weeks after Uber, one of its investors, announced its own departure from the country.

Uber said on September 2, 2026 that it would end operations in Nigeria after 12 years as part of a broader review of its business priorities and investment focus across Africa, with the company saying it would redirect resources towards markets where it believed it could create greater value for drivers and riders at scale.

Neither company has identified a single Nigeria-specific reason for leaving, although their departures come amid mounting pressure across the country’s ride-hailing sector from rising fuel and maintenance costs, complaints from drivers over commissions and fares, high inflation and weaker consumer purchasing power.

The two exits also form part of a broader pullback from Nigeria’s mobility sector, with at least four notable mobility or ride-hailing companies having exited or shut down operations in the country over the past five years.

SafeBoda left in 2022 after describing its Nigerian business as unprofitable, while Hytch shut down in 2023 after failing to secure additional funding, followed by Uber in September 2026 and Moove about five weeks later.

“Nigeria is where Moove began, and everything we have built since carries something of Lagos with it,” Moove co-founder and co-chief executive Ladi Delano said, reflecting on the company’s origins in the city.

“Jide and I started the company because talented, hardworking mobility entrepreneurs wanted the opportunity to earn, but could not get access to the vehicles and finance they needed.”

From 76 vehicles to a $2.1 billion company

Delano and Jide Odunsi founded Moove in Lagos in 2020 to provide vehicle financing to drivers who struggled to access traditional credit, starting with just 76 vehicles and about $5.5 million in seed funding.

The company later secured $23 million in Series A funding in 2021, $105 million in Series A2 financing in 2022 and another $76 million in equity and debt in 2023.

Its international expansion accelerated in March 2024 when Uber backed Moove with a $100 million Series B round in March 2024, before a further $250 million Series C raise in 2026 lifted its valuation to $2.1 billion and total capital raised to more than $710 million.

Moove has since expanded into autonomous mobility through its partnership with Alphabet-owned Waymo, managing robotaxi fleet operations and supporting infrastructure in Phoenix, Miami and Las Vegas, with London expected to follow.

The company now operates about 42,000 vehicles across 29 cities in 13 countries and generates about $420 million in annual recurring revenue, making its exit from Nigeria a notable withdrawal from the market where the business was founded.