Nigerian Fintech Shekel Mobility Gets $7M To Accelerate Africa’s Auto Dealership Revolution

Shekel Mobility, a B2B marketplace and management system for auto dealers, has secured over $7 million in funding, comprising $3.2 million in equity and over $4 million in debt.

Small and medium-scale dealerships comprise nearly 82% of the African car dealership market, according to Benjamindada.com.

Many of these dealers struggle with offering affordable prices for used cars due to insufficient financing options.

In most sub-Saharan Africa, the figure for automotive transactions is less than 2%.

Shekel Mobility aims to change that.

Shekel Mobility

Shekel Mobility empowers auto dealerships to realize their full market potential by providing financial and management services, including credit facilities.

The marketplace facilitates secure cross-border transactions, automates business operations, and ensures end-to-end security.

Shekel Mobility’s founders, Benjamen Oladokun and Sanmi Olukanmi, aim to create the world’s largest and most inclusive auto dealership ecosystem in Africa and beyond, powered by technology.

The founders’ combined expertise in the automotive industry, including the launch and exit of Eazypapers Technologies – a digital vehicle documentation platform – laid the groundwork for Shekel Mobility.

To date, the auto dealer marketplace has powered transactions worth over $56 million, facilitating the growth of over 1,400 auto dealers by augmenting their inventories and sales across 7,000 cars.

The startup’s flagship product, Shekel Credit, offers auto dealers immediate access to financing, with credit limits extending up to $200,000.

Building on its growth in the last 20 months through its credit product, Shekel Mobility is set to introduce more offerings.

$7 Million In Funding Secured

The marketplace has now secured over $7 million in funding, which will be instrumental in quadrupling the startup’s current annual recurring revenue (ARR) of slightly over $2 million.

“Our goal is to ensure that every auto dealer in Africa and other emerging markets can access the right kind of capital to maximize the opportunities available,” Oladokun told Techcrunch.

In January of this year, the upstart also announced a $1.95 million pre-seed investment led by Ventures Platform with participation from Y Combinator, Voltron Capital, and Zedcrest.

This time, Ventures Platform co-led its seed round alongside MaC Venture Capital.

Other investors include Y Combinator, Rebel Fund, Unpopular Ventures, Maiora Capital, PageOne Lab Inc., Phoenix Investment Club, Heirloom VC, Pioneer Ventures, and other angel investors.