Shekel Mobility, a business-to-business (B2B) trading platform serving car dealers in Africa, has successfully secured a $7 million seed funding round led by Ventures Platform and MaC VC. Earlier this year, the company announced a pre-seed funding round of $1.95 million, expressing its goal to create the largest auto dealership ecosystem with a target of powering $10 billion by 2025. Co-founded by Benjamen Oladokun and Sanmi Olukanmi in 2021, Shekel Mobility aims to ensure that every auto dealer in Africa and other emerging markets can access the right kind of capital to maximize available opportunities.
In the African car dealership market, approximately 82% consists of small and medium-scale dealerships. Many of these dealers face challenges in providing affordable prices for used cars due to limited financing options. In contrast, other emerging markets typically see institutional credit making up a significant portion of automotive transactions. However, in sub-Saharan Africa, this figure is less than 2%, according to Shekel Mobility.
While various mobility fintech companies are addressing vehicle financing challenges across the continent, they often focus on established car dealers, who represent only 18% of the market, or individual consumers.
Shekel Mobility plays a vital role in facilitating car dealers in discovering, financing, and selling cars within the African used car market. Sanmi, co-founder and CEO at Shekel Mobility, emphasized the significance of auto dealers in the automobile value chain, stating, “Auto dealers are the most critical stakeholders in the automobile value chain. Yet, they have been neglected up until now.”
Since its launch with the backing of Y Combinator, Shekel Mobility has facilitated transactions exceeding $56 million, contributing to the expansion of over 1,400 auto dealerships and facilitating sales across 7,000 cars.
To access credit through Shekel Credit, pre-approved dealers must contribute a minimum of 30% of the vehicle’s value they intend to purchase. After thorough vetting and validation of relevant documents, Shekel Mobility disburses the remaining 70%. The company also plans to establish its car lots in the coming months.
In addition to providing financial support, Shekel Mobility offers assistance to dealers struggling to meet specified selling timeframes. The company helps these dealers sell the vehicle either to a consumer or another dealer within its fintech network. Benjamen emphasized the success of their credit model, stating, “Due to our credit model, we have a 0% default rate. This is because we do not just offer credit but we have built an operating system for the dealers to run their transactions.”
With the new funding, Shekel Mobility plans to launch Shekel Business, another product aimed at modernizing informal trading operations in the auto dealership sector.