SA based Estonian Fintech startup Planet42 raised US$ 2.4M from Estonian Investors on 16 June 2020. Planet42 offers access to a personal car to those who are unable to get vehicle loans across South Africa.
The seed funding round was led by Change Ventures, along with private backers – Martin Villig of Bolt, Ragnar Sass of Pipedrive, Kristjan Vilosius of Katana MRP, Marko Virkebau of MeetFrank and other Estonian tech entrepreneurs.
Founded by Marten Orgna and Eerik Oja, Planet42 was first launched as CarGet before rebranding to Planet42. Marten Orgna, the CFO, used to run Estonian based African Investments for Trigon Capital, while Oja was the country manager for Mogo Finance in Estonia.
The startup provides on pre-owned cars, giving customers the opportunity to drive any vehicle despite of the vehicle’s age. The process is quite easy as well. The customer has to select a pre-owned car and fill out an application form at any dealer which has partnership with Planet42. Their automated scoring algorithm will then approve the application. They then buy the car from the dealer and rent it to the customer who will have to pay monthly payments to Planet42. There is also the option of buying out the car at any time. The buy-out price keeps decreasing every month until it becomes USD 291 (R5000) after 5 years. The cars are secured with tracking technology and mechanical insurance.
The funds raised by Planet42 will be used to expand its portfolio of vehicles. They are targeting a total of 100,000 cars by 2024. They are also planning for international expansion across emerging markets as well as offer motorcycles and other transport vehicles, alongside cars.
CEO Eerik Oja said, “We see a huge need for people to improve their standards of living with better mobility, but a lack of options in the market to service them. More than 24 million people are credit impaired or have no access to finance in South Africa – that’s well over half of the adult population.”
