Naran, a mobility financing and fleet infrastructure platform, has raised $10 million in equity and debt financing from Landel, an investment firm based in the United Arab Emirates.

The funding will support the expansion of Naran’s mobility fleets in Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Colombia and Peru, alongside the company’s planned entry into new markets, including the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and the rollout of additional fintech products.

Founded in 2025 by Bayaskhalan Alexeev and Alexander Gubarev, both alumni of Yango, where they launched and scaled ride-hailing operations across Latin America and Africa, Naran provides rent-to-own financing for cars and motorcycles.

Through flexible financing terms ranging from 12 to 60 months, the company enables independent drivers to gain access to vehicles. Naran purchases vehicles directly from manufacturers and works with major ride-hailing and delivery platforms, including Yango and inDrive, to help underbanked drivers get on the road.

The company has developed its own fleet management system to manage its operations across all its markets. The technology covers driver onboarding, payment scheduling, utilisation tracking, telematics and maintenance.

By using one technology platform alongside a consistent operating model, Naran is positioned to scale its operations across different geographical markets efficiently.

Naran’s vehicle financing is also designed to create a broader financial relationship with drivers. Each contract establishes a driver’s first formal repayment history, which forms the basis of the company’s wider ambition to become an asset-backed financing platform for emerging markets.

Under that model, products ranging from vehicles to future credit offerings would be secured by real assets and actual repayment data.

The company also plans to extend its technology infrastructure beyond its own fleet. Naran intends to make its technology stack available to third-party fleet operators across its markets through software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings that include fleet management software and internal automation tools.

It also plans to provide asset-backed debt financing for fleet expansion and, where the economics justify it, acquire operators outright.

Under the multi-fleet model, Naran expects fleet operators across its markets to become potential customers rather than competitors.

“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. Our goal is to make vehicle ownership accessible to mobility entrepreneurs, helping them increase their income and build financial security. At the same time, we solve the biggest constraint for ride-hailing and delivery platforms in these markets: supply. Every vehicle we finance is an active driver added to our partners’ marketplaces,” said Bayaskhalan Alexeev, CEO and co-founder of Naran.

For ride-hailing and delivery platforms, Naran operates as a supply engine, with every financed vehicle arriving alongside a vetted and onboarded driver. The company also shares fleet utilisation data with partners to help maximise the number of hours vehicles spend on the road.

Naran is open to supply partnerships with ride-hailing and delivery platforms entering or expanding operations across Latin America, Africa and MENA.

The company’s expansion is taking place against a backdrop of significant informal employment and mobility challenges across emerging markets. In sub-Saharan Africa, nearly 88% of employment is informal, which limits access to vehicle financing and employment.

In cities such as Abidjan, mobility constraints are estimated to reduce national income by 4–5%. At the same time, demand for ride-hailing services is already significant, with Côte d’Ivoire ranking among the African countries with the highest levels of ride-hailing usage on the continent.

Ride-hailing also represents one of the more attractive employment options available to workers. According to Oliver Wyman, drivers in Africa earn up to 130% more than workers in comparable-skill jobs.

The continent’s shared mobility market is expected to nearly double by 2030 to approximately $8 billion, creating more than 550,000 additional income opportunities, which would represent the fastest growth of any region globally.

“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. The model generates hard collateral, daily cash flows, and proven unit economics – and the fleet management infrastructure behind it makes the model scalable well beyond the company’s own fleet. We look forward to supporting Naran’s next phase of growth across Latin America and Africa,” said Aidar Musin, Managing Partner at Landel.

By 2030, Naran aims to operate in 10 countries, create 30,000 income opportunities and deploy fleets comprising 10,000 cars and 20,000 motorcycles.

The company’s expansion also creates opportunities for UAE-based innovation and cross-border business growth, bringing global market activity and revenue streams into the UAE ecosystem.

Source: MSME Africa Online