Planet42 raises $100 million to scale operations globally

Planet42, a car subscription service, announced that it has raised $100 million in combined equity and debt funding to scale its operations globally.

The $100 million is made up of an equity round of $15 million co-led by Naspers and ARS Holdings, with participation from existing and new shareholders, including Rivonia Road Capital. Rivonia Capitla also provided a $75 million credit facility while private investors contributed a further $10 million in debt financing.

Planet42 has an ambitious plan to provide one million cars world-wide by 2025 to people excluded from traditional car financing.

Planet42 was founded in Tallinn, Estonia by Eerik Oja and Marten Orgna in 2017 who then relocated to South Africa to launch the company. The company currently has operations in South Africa and Mexico.

According to the United Nations, only half the world’s urban population has adequate access to public transportation. Many of those excluded from access to reliable public transport are wage-earning workers in emerging markets who, despite having bank accounts and stable incomes, are unable to get financing from traditional financial institutions to buy vehicles of their own. This impacts their ability to access economic opportunities while increasing personal safety risks and perpetuating structural inequality. 

Planet42 is a mobility startup that offers rent-to-buy car subscriptions. It is fighting transport inequality by putting cars in the hands of people unfairly ignored by banks. By combining a proprietary scoring engine with a robust car dealership partner network, Planet42 has been able to buy cars for 15,000 people that struggle with access to traditional vehicle financing. 

Planet42 leverages technology and empowers local motor dealerships to promote financial and social inclusion in regions where their model can have the biggest impact. By buying second-hand cars from a network of local dealerships and providing them to customers on a subscription basis, Planet42 is breaking the transport inequality cycle. Based on credit history data, 89% of customers would not have a car without Planet42. 

In 2021 Planet42 raised $6 million in equity and $24 million in debt financing. Since then, the company has nearly quadrupled the size of its business and purchased well over 5,000 cars in South Africa in the last 12 months alone. 

Since inception, the startup has raised $150 million in combined equity and debt funding from investors. It recently launched in Mexico with 250 cars following the success of its model in South Africa and it plans to expand to new markets in Latin America and South-East Asia

“Safe and reliable transport is a key driver of social and economic inclusion in emerging economies. It enables people to access opportunities like jobs, education and public services more easily when public transport is often unreliable, painfully slow, unsafe – and usually all those things at once. We are here to make transport more accessible and are constantly working on making Planet42’s car subscription offering accessible to people unfairly ignored by banks,” said Eerik Oja, co-founder and CEO of Planet42. 

“Our experience in South Africa has shown that the subscription model can make an enormous impact on everyday people in emerging markets. We have also expanded into Mexico, a country with similar challenges to South Africa, with a large population of underbanked working people struggling with transport inequality. Our goal is to buy cars for a total of 1 million families in the coming years,” he added. 

According to Rivonia Road Capital’s Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Daniel Zinn, “Rivonia Road is excited to partner with Planet42 by providing the capital needed to address this market inefficiency and help democratize access to mobility for thousands of underserved consumers worldwide.”