Naran Raises $10 Million to Expand Mobility Fintech
UAE-based mobility fintech Naran has raised $10 million in combined equity and debt financing from Landel, giving the company fresh capital to expand vehicle financing for ride-hailing and delivery drivers across Latin America, Africa and, eventually, the Middle East and North Africa.
Founded in 2025, Naran provides rent-to-own financing for cars and motorcycles to drivers who may struggle to access conventional bank loans because of irregular income or limited credit histories. The latest funding also marks a broader shift in Naran’s strategy, as the company moves beyond vehicle financing toward fleet technology and asset-backed financial services.
Naran builds a financing platform around mobility fleets
Naran currently operates in Colombia, Peru, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire, with plans to enter Paraguay in September 2026. The company intends to use the new financing to expand its existing fleets, enter additional markets and develop new fintech products.
The model connects vehicle ownership with the growing ride-hailing and delivery economy. Naran purchases vehicles directly from manufacturers and offers drivers repayment terms ranging from 12 to 60 months, while partnering with platforms including Yango and inDrive.
However, the company is building more than a vehicle-financing business. Its proprietary fleet management platform handles driver onboarding, payment scheduling, vehicle utilisation, telematics and maintenance across its operating markets.
That infrastructure gives Naran a technology layer that can extend beyond vehicles financed directly by the company. It plans to offer fleet management software and automation tools to third-party operators as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) product, while also exploring asset-backed debt financing for fleet expansion.
Bayaskhalan Alexeev, CEO and co-founder of Naran, said, “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.”
The approach also creates a financial history for drivers. Each repayment can contribute to a formal record, potentially providing a foundation for additional credit products as Naran expands its financial offering.
Why emerging-market mobility is attracting fintech investment
Naran’s model targets two interconnected challenges: access to vehicle financing and the shortage of vehicles available to mobility platforms.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the company says nearly 88 percent of employment is informal, making conventional vehicle financing difficult for many workers. Meanwhile, demand for ride-hailing and delivery services continues to create opportunities for drivers who need access to income-generating assets.
Côte d’Ivoire illustrates the opportunity. The country has one of Africa’s highest levels of ride-hailing usage, while mobility constraints in cities such as Abidjan can create wider economic costs.
Naran also points to research from Oliver Wyman indicating that African ride-hailing drivers can earn up to 130 percent more than workers in comparable-skill jobs. Meanwhile, the continent’s shared mobility market is expected to approach $8 billion by 2030, according to figures cited by the company.
For mobility platforms, the financing model addresses a different problem: vehicle supply. Naran says each financed vehicle can enter a partner marketplace with a vetted and onboarded driver, while utilisation data can help operators manage their fleets.
Aidar Musin, Managing Partner at Landel, said, “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.”
From vehicle financing to a broader fintech infrastructure
The financing round could therefore position Naran at the intersection of mobility, embedded finance, fleet management and alternative credit.
Rather than treating the vehicle as the end product, the company is using the asset and its repayment data as the foundation for a wider financial model. Its proposed third-party SaaS offering could also allow Naran to generate revenue from fleet operators without owning every vehicle on the platform.
The company was founded by Bayaskhalan Alexeev and Alexander Gubarev, both former Yango executives who worked on ride-hailing operations across Latin America and Africa. Their previous operating experience aligns closely with Naran’s current geographic focus and fleet-based model.
Naran has set ambitious targets for 2030. The company aims to operate across 10 countries, create 30,000 income opportunities, and deploy fleets comprising 10,000 cars and 20,000 motorcycles.
The planned expansion into MENA is particularly relevant to Naran’s UAE base, potentially strengthening the country’s role as a launchpad for fintech companies targeting emerging markets. More broadly, the company’s strategy reflects how mobility platforms are increasingly being paired with financial infrastructure to solve practical barriers to vehicle ownership and fleet expansion.
Ultimately, Naran’s $10 million financing round is significant because it links capital, vehicles, drivers and digital fleet infrastructure within a single operating model. If the company executes its expansion plans, its evolution from a rent-to-own provider into a broader asset-backed fintech platform could offer a blueprint for financing income-generating mobility assets across markets where traditional credit remains difficult to access.