The Brazilian startup Mottu announced it raised $40M in a Series B round and in debt financing. The equity round was led by Base Partners and Crankstart, a family foundation created by Harriet Heyman and Michael Moritz, Partner at Sequoia Capital. Tiger Global Management also participated in the round, its second investment in Mottu after leading its Series A round. The debt portion of the financing was provided by Verde Asset, one of Brazil’s most relevant investment management firms.
Mottu is a motorcycle rental startup whose customers are independent couriers looking to work for delivery or logistics apps. These customers are usually unemployed and have bad credit score ratings, making it very difficult for them to buy or lease a motorcycle in traditional dealer stores. As Rubens Zanelatto, Mottu’s CEO explains:
“Those people can’t go to a dealer store and buy or lease a motorcycle to work as a courier. And we solve all the bottlenecks that couriers have in their working journey. We are trying to get our business model to be a no-brainer decision for a courier.”
Mottu’s customers pay a weekly fee for the motorcycle rental. The startup completely avoids delinquency because customers know that their motorcycle gets blocked if they fail to pay their fee.
The Brazilian startup started operating in 2020 with a 200 motorcycle fleet. To this date, this number increased to 10,000. Mottu opened operations in eight Brazilian cities and in Mexico. It also diversified its services, and it currently offers insurance, maintenance, credit, and even a driving school. Fernando Spnola, partner at Base, pointed out the following:
“Rubens has taken a novel approach to the last-mile problem and created a solution focused on the supply (…) By putting the courier at the center, Mottu is not only doing good by them but also building a robust business and a technology platform to advance online commerce and logistics in Brazil.”
With the new funding, the startup is planning to reach a 50,000 motorcycle fleet by 2023 and hire over 50 senior engineers as well as a Chief Technology Officer.