Meet Shekel Mobility, fintech-powered car dealerships in Africa.

Small car dealers litter the roads from Berger to Ajah in the city of Lagos and other major cities in Nigeria and Africa. Compared to its population of over a billion, the continent has a rather poor automotive industry. “The motorization rate on the continent is only 44 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants. This is far below the global average of 180 vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants”. A large number of the cars on the market are used cars, sold by unstructured car dealers without a fleet of cars or even a car space. Think about how many times you’ve seen a WhatsApp or Facebook ad selling a used car. These car dealers are small independent dealers and small businesses make up a large percentage of businesses worldwide, with sub-Saharan Africa alone having 44 million micro, small and medium enterprises. These figures mean that a large part of the African economy is sustained by small businesses and for these businesses to thrive, they need financing.

Typically, banks tend to focus on larger businesses, and loan terms are often restrictive, with high interest rates making it difficult for car dealerships and other businesses to access much-needed financing. The COVID-19 pandemic also affected this new industry, and in 2019 new vehicle sales in Africa fell 4% to 1.17 million units, compared to 1.22 million units in 2018. With these obstacles in the way, car dealers are left with insufficient funding and small unsustainable businesses.

To solve this problem is Shekel Mobility, a simplified financing and operating system for car dealers in Africa.

Shekel Mobility is a platform that offers an easier, smarter and faster way to launch and expand your car dealership locally or virtually. They help emerging businesses reach their full potential by digitizing their financial processes and giving them access to credit. With the help of Shekel Mobility, business owners can sustain and scale their businesses. The goal of Shekel is to build the largest ecosystem of car dealerships operating $10 billion by the year 2025, and it is on track to do this with a recent Y Combinator co-sign. It already finances 1,000 car dealers in its network.

How it works

To access credit from Shekel Mobility, dealers must apply and be approved. Pre-approved dealers are required to provide at least 30% of the value of the vehicle they intend to purchase, and Shekel Mobility provides the remaining 70% of the financing after checking and validating the corresponding documents. Once the vehicle is purchased, it is placed in an approved car park – the company also intends to own the car space(s) in the coming months. After the dealer sells the car, they can repay the loan to Shekel and continue to grow their business.

Shekel Mobility also provides assistance to dealers when they are unable to meet the stipulated time to sell a vehicle. It helps retailers sell to consumers or other retailers on the network.

According to the company’s data, Shekel Mobility dealers have been able to triple their sales so far by increasing their inventory through access to this affordable financing.

The journey so far

Founded by Benjamen Oladokun, Chief Business Officer (CBO), Sanmi Olukanmi (CEO) and Valentine Mayaki (CTO), Shekel Mobility’s leadership shares over 15 years of friendship and 10+ years of experience in mobility and technology.

Since its launch, Shekel Mobility has added 1,000 car dealers to its network and has actively financed around 3,500 cars worth $20 million – with over $2 million in transactions each month.

“Because of our credit model, we have a default rate of 0%,” says Benjamen. “This is because we not only offer credit, but have built an operating system for merchants to carry out their transactions.”

This traction, along with the viability of the business solution, has led to their selection for the Y Combinator Winter 2023 Batch.

In Q1 2023, the company wants to increase its transactions from 20% to 100%, month to month. “Limited access to credit from financial institutions is one of our biggest challenges,” says Sanmi, “Most of our funding comes from non-traditional institutions and VCs. However, we see a future where these financial institutions will be willing to work with us. »

Although Shekel Mobility still leverages its equity financing, the company is now prioritizing getting more debt financing to push its business model across the continent and other emerging markets.

According to Benjamen, “Our aim is to ensure that every car dealer in Africa and other emerging markets is able to access the right type of capital to maximize the opportunities available. As it stands, we have made it possible for local dealers to grow their business 3x and we are overwhelmed with a passion to see this grow exponentially,”

Shekel Mobility also raised $1,950,000 in a pre-seed round that was oversubscribed. Ventures Platform led the investment round, with participation from other strategic investors such as Y Combinator, Voltron Capital, Zedcrest and other angel investors.

Access Shekel Mobility here