A financing gap that keeps most gig drivers in the developing world off the road is attracting fresh capital. Naran, a mobility fintech founded by two Yango alumni, has collected $10M in equity and debt from Landel, a UAE investment firm, to expand rent-to-own vehicle financing across Colombia, Peru, Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire.
The startup targets ride-hailing and delivery drivers whose irregular incomes rule them out of bank loans. Every financed car or motorcycle contract creates a first formal repayment record for the driver, which Naran sees as the seed of a broader asset-backed lending platform for emerging markets.
The company runs its own fleet management system covering onboarding, payment scheduling, utilization tracking, telematics, and maintenance. It plans to open that stack to third-party fleet operators as a SaaS product, turning internal tooling into a second revenue line.
The market gap is real. With roughly 88% of employment in sub-Saharan Africa informal, most gig drivers have no credit record, and mobility constraints are estimated to shave 4-5% off national income in cities like Abidjan. Landel’s investment gives Naran capital to deploy into GPS-tracked, revenue-generating vehicles, an asset class the investor says combines hard collateral with deep operational experience.
By 2030, Naran aims to operate in 10 countries, create 30,000 income opportunities, and field fleets of 10,000 cars and 20,000 motorcycles. For a region where ride-hailing platforms still depend on cash-heavy operations, that scale would make vehicle ownership a real career path rather than a gig.
