Problem

Shekel Mobility addresses the working-capital and operational barriers facing Africa’s largely informal used-car dealer market. Dealers need reliable access to inventory, but vehicle financing is difficult to obtain, constraining daily transactions, increasing costs, and limiting the number of cars that can reach customers. The underlying opportunity is substantial: most cars serving growing African demand are used, yet vehicle ownership is below 45 cars per 1,000 people, compared with a global average of 203.

The clearest use case is a dealer who finds a vehicle but cannot fund the purchase outright. Under Shekel Credit’s model, a dealer might contribute 30% of a $10,000 vehicle’s cost while Shekel finances the remaining 70%; the dealer repays the financing, interest, and transaction fees after selling the car, typically within three months. This converts inventory from a cash-flow constraint into a financeable, actively managed asset.

Product / Service

Shekel Mobility is a B2B marketplace and operating platform for auto dealerships. It connects African dealers with local and international vehicle sources, financing, logistics, and dealership-management tools. Its inventory-sourcing network uses verified dealers, exporters, and auctions, with access to vehicles from the United States, Japan, and Europe; listings can include VINs, inspection records, pricing, shipping options, and links to financing and fulfilment.

The platform combines Shekel Credit with Shekel Business. Dealers apply, get approved and onboarded, create a digital showroom, manage inventory, invoicing, and sales, and track transactions in real time through web and mobile tools. The model is designed to let dealers source, finance, ship, market, and sell more vehicles in one workflow. Shekel states that it is a technology platform rather than a bank, with financial services supplied by CBN-licensed banks and financial institutions.

Market

Shekel Mobility competes in the intersection of African used-car marketplaces, automotive inventory lending, mobility fintech, and dealership-management software. Its stated market is the approximately $30 billion African used-car market, while its YC profile positions the company as building a broader auto-dealership ecosystem. The closest named overlapping competitors in the available research are Moove and Cars45, although the evidence does not establish that either offers the same full combination of dealer financing, sourcing, logistics, and operating software.

The company is not pre-revenue. In November 2023, it reported more than $7 million in total funding, comprising $3.2 million of equity and more than $4 million of debt; contemporaneous reporting cited annual recurring revenue slightly above $2 million and more than 1,400 dealers across 7,000 cars. Its current website continues to present active dealer onboarding, inventory sourcing, financing, fulfilment, and business-management products, but the research gathered here does not provide newer operating metrics that would establish its exact scale as of August 2026.