Waymo is partnering with Moove, an African mobility fintech that offers vehicle financing to gig workers, to handle fleet management operations for its robotaxi service in Phoenix and, soon, Miami. 

The partnership marks several firsts, like Waymo’s entry into Miami. It’s also the first time Moove will enter the U.S. market and work with autonomous vehicles. Today, Moove operates in various cities across Africa, the Middle East, India, and the U.K., and has raised over $400 million from backers like Mubadala Investment Company and BlackRock. Earlier this year, Moove scored $100 million in a round led by Uber.

The partnership with Moove signals that Waymo is keen to outsource more of the commercial side of the business and focus on developing the self-driving technology as a driver-as-a-service model. 

Waymo has been offering a commercial ride-hail service in Phoenix for years, and began offering its robotaxis on the Uber app there alongside Waymo’s native app, Waymo One, in October 2023. In early 2025, Waymo’s robotaxis will be exclusively available on the Uber app in Austin and Atlanta. 

Waymo co-CEO Tekendra Mawakana wrote in a recent LinkedIn post that as the company scales autonomous vehicle operations, it intends to create an ecosystem of industry partners, including “charging infrastructure partners; fleet maintenance partners; full-electric automotive partners like Jaguar Land Rover…”

Moove falls under the fleet maintenance partner umbrella. Waymo will still operate Waymo One in Phoenix and Miami, but Moove will take over fleet operations in Phoenix and help the company build out the necessary charging infrastructure and depots for its fleet of Jaguar I-Paces in Miami. Waymo intends to transition operations to Moove in Phoenix early next year. 

In Miami, Waymo will start small scale testing in early 2025, with a goal to launch a fully driverless commercial ride-hail service in the city in 2026. As the company tests, Moove will build out the infrastructure Waymo needs to deploy in Miami, per a Waymo spokesperson. 

Waymo’s playbook for expanding into a new city usually begins by manually testing a small fleet, mainly for mapping purposes, before testing autonomously with a safety operator behind the wheel. Then Waymo pulls the driver out and invites employees to ride before launching commercially.

Waymo would not share which neighborhoods the company is targeting in Miami, nor what the financial arrangement with Moove would be.

A spokesperson for Waymo told TechCrunch that Moove’s global fleet management experience made the startup an attractive partner for handling robotaxi fleet operations.

As established, the partnership marks a significant milestone for Moove: expanding its services to include autonomous vehicles and establishing its presence in the U.S., a process the startup began nearly four months ago, per job listings on LinkedIn.

Since its launch, Moove has been an exclusive fleet partner for Uber, purchasing vehicles and leasing them to drivers who pay weekly until they own the cars. In 2022, Moove, talking up plans to become the largest EV partner on Uber’s platform in London, said it’ll deploy up to 10,000 EVs and over 6,000 charging points by the end of 2025, aligning with Uber’s goal of becoming an all-electric platform in the U.K. capital next year.

While Moove may be looking to secure new partnerships (such as this one with Waymo) globally to diversify from Uber, its experience working with the mobility giant this long will prove helpful. It certainly helped secure Waymo as a customer. 

That said, for Moove, managing operations for Waymo’s autonomous fleets in two major U.S. cities is a big step. It expands the company’s global reach into the biggest leagues – as it diversifies its offerings beyond Africa and emerging markets – and showcases its ability to handle complex fleet operations in various markets. 

Moove has other plans in the U.S., based on job listings on the company’s website. There are several listings for a potential service in Los Angeles, although the nature of that is unclear. 

A Waymo spokesperson said the two don’t have plans to launch together in LA, where Waymo currently runs a commercial service. 

When asked, a Moove spokesperson confirmed that the company is recruiting for its burgeoning U.S. team, but declined to provide specifics.