Naran Raises $10M From Landel to Scale Mobility Fintech Across Africa and Latin America
Naran, a UAE-based mobility financing startup, has raised $10 million in equity and debt funding from Landel, a UAE investment firm. This mobility fintech startup funding will help Naran grow its vehicle fleets in Colombia, Peru, Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire. The money will also fund the company’s move into new markets, including the Middle East and North Africa region, along with new fintech product launches.
Bayaskhalan Alexeev and Alexander Gubarev founded Naran in 2025. Both co-founders previously worked at Yango, where they built and grew ride-hailing operations across Latin America and Africa. Naran offers rent-to-own financing for cars and motorcycles. This setup lets independent drivers access vehicles through flexible payment plans lasting 12 to 60 months. The company buys vehicles straight from manufacturers and partners with major ride-hailing and delivery platforms, including Yango and inDrive, to get underbanked drivers behind the wheel.
How This Mobility Fintech Startup Operates
Naran built its own fleet management system to run every part of its business. This system handles driver onboarding, payment scheduling, utilization tracking, telematics, and maintenance across all its markets. Because the company runs on one technology platform with a consistent operating model, it can expand efficiently into new regions.
The vehicle itself is just the starting point. Each financing contract helps a driver build their first formal repayment history. This repayment data forms the foundation of Naran’s larger goal: becoming an asset-backed financing platform for emerging markets, where vehicles and future credit products are backed by real assets and real repayment records.
Naran’s Infrastructure Extends Beyond Its Own Fleet
Naran designed its technology to serve more than just its own vehicles. The company plans to open its tech stack to third-party fleet operators across its markets. This includes offering fleet management software as a SaaS product, providing asset-backed debt financing for fleet expansion, and, in some cases, acquiring operators outright. Under this model, every fleet operator in Naran’s markets becomes a potential customer instead of a rival.
“We address a critical financing gap in emerging markets, where ride-hailing and delivery drivers can’t access traditional bank loans due to irregular income or limited credit histories,” said Bayaskhalan Alexeev, CEO and co-founder of Naran. He explained that Naran’s goal is to make vehicle ownership accessible to mobility entrepreneurs, helping them boost their income and build financial security. At the same time, the company solves a major problem for ride-hailing and delivery platforms: driver supply. Every financed vehicle becomes an active driver added to Naran’s partner networks.
For platform partners, Naran works as a supply engine. Every financed vehicle comes with a vetted, onboarded driver already attached. Naran also shares fleet utilization data with partners to help maximize hours on the road. The company welcomes supply partnerships with ride-hailing and delivery platforms expanding across Latin America, Africa, and the MENA region.
Why Africa and Latin America Offer Major Growth Potential
Nearly 88% of employment in sub-Saharan Africa remains informal, which limits access to both vehicle financing and steady employment. In cities like Abidjan, poor mobility options are estimated to cut national income by 4 to 5%. Still, demand keeps growing. Côte d’Ivoire ranks among the African countries with the highest ride-hailing usage on the continent. Ride-hailing also ranks among the most attractive jobs available, since drivers in Africa earn up to 130% more than workers in comparable-skill jobs, according to Oliver Wyman.
Africa’s shared mobility market is expected to nearly double by 2030, reaching approximately $8 billion. This growth would create more than 550,000 additional income opportunities, making it the fastest-growing region in the world for this sector.
Latin America already stands as one of the world’s busiest ride-hailing regions. São Paulo and Mexico City rank as the two busiest Uber cities on the planet. Nearly a third of the region’s population already uses ride-hailing services. Global players like DiDi and inDrive count Latin America among their fastest-growing markets, with the industry expanding at 17.8% annually through 2033.
Africa sits at an earlier stage of this same growth pattern. Ride-hailing users across the continent are expected to reach 268 million by 2029. Yet penetration remains below 20%, meaning most of the continent’s demand stays untapped.
Investor Confidence in the Mobility Fintech Startup Model
“Naran is a rare combination in emerging markets: an asset-backed business where every dollar deployed is secured by a revenue-generating, GPS-tracked vehicle, run by a team with deep operational experience in these exact markets,” said Aidar Musin, Managing Partner at Landel. He noted that the model generates hard collateral, daily cash flows, and proven unit economics. He added that Naran’s fleet management infrastructure makes the model scalable well beyond the company’s own fleet, and that Landel looks forward to supporting Naran’s next growth phase across Latin America and Africa.
Naran’s Growth Targets Through 2030
By 2030, Naran aims to operate across 10 countries. The company plans to create 30,000 income opportunities and deploy fleets totaling 10,000 cars and 20,000 motorcycles. Naran’s expansion also creates opportunities tied to UAE-based innovation, bringing cross-border business growth and new revenue streams into the UAE ecosystem.
