Mobility fintech startup Naran has raised $10 million in combined equity and debt financing from UAE-based investment firm Landel as it looks to expand vehicle financing for ride-hailing and delivery drivers across emerging markets.
Founded in 2025 by former Yango executives Bayaskhalan Alekseev and Alexander Gubarev, Naran is tackling one of the biggest barriers facing Africa’s growing gig economy: access to vehicles.
The company plans to use the new funding to expand across Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire, enter the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) market, and launch additional fintech products. It also currently operates in Colombia and Peru, with plans to enter Paraguay by September 2026.
Financing the people powering Africa’s mobility economy
For many ride-hailing and delivery drivers, getting access to a vehicle is the first major barrier to entering the industry.
Naran uses a rent-to-own model that allows drivers to access cars and motorcycles for periods between 12 and 60 months, giving them the opportunity to generate income while working towards ownership.
The company purchases vehicles directly from manufacturers and works with platforms such as Yango and inDrive to deploy them.
This model shifts vehicle ownership from being an upfront financial burden to a longer-term income-generating asset.
For Naran, that creates an opportunity to build a financial business around the vehicles it finances.
From vehicle financing to mobility infrastructure
Naran is also developing fleet-management technology that tracks driver onboarding, payments, vehicle usage, telematics and maintenance.
That technology could eventually become a business in its own right.
The company plans to offer its fleet-management platform as a software-as-a-service product to third-party fleet operators. It also intends to finance fleet expansion and potentially acquire operators where commercially viable.
This means Naran is positioning itself beyond traditional vehicle financing.
It is building an infrastructure layer connecting drivers, vehicles, fleet operators, fintech and ride-hailing platforms.
The data opportunity
One of Naran’s biggest potential advantages is the data generated through financed vehicles.
Repayment behaviour, vehicle usage and operating performance can provide insights that traditional lenders may not have when assessing informal workers.
That matters in Africa, where a large share of employment sits outside the formal economy and many workers struggle to access conventional credit.
By combining financing with operational data, Naran could potentially build a more detailed picture of a driver’s ability to repay and generate income.
This creates possibilities for additional asset-backed financial products in the future.
A growing mobility market
Naran estimates that Africa could have 268 million ride-hailing users by 2029, while less than 20% of the population currently uses ride-hailing services.
That potential growth creates a straightforward business challenge: more demand for mobility services requires more drivers and vehicles.
Naran is betting that affordable vehicle financing can help close that gap.
The company’s long-term target is to operate in 10 countries by 2030, create 30,000 income opportunities, and finance 10,000 cars and 20,000 motorcycles.
The bigger opportunity, however, may be the financial ecosystem developing around those vehicles.
As Africa’s mobility economy expands, companies that can finance the assets, manage the fleets and use the resulting data could become just as important as the platforms connecting drivers with passengers.
Naran’s $10 million raise is therefore not simply a bet on more cars on African roads. It is a bet on financing the infrastructure behind the continent’s growing gig economy.
