Drive45 has secured a substantial debt facility to push its rent to own vehicle model beyond its current footprint and into more of Nigeria's major cities. Founded in 2021, the company closed a 3 million dollar debt facility from TLG Capital, capital earmarked specifically for expanding both its vehicle fleet and its customer base at a moment when the startup is already managing more than 170 active vehicles across its platform.

The core of Drive45's offering bundles together several services that car ownership in Nigeria typically requires sourcing separately and expensively. Rather than simply renting out vehicles, the company combines vehicle access with financing, insurance, maintenance, tracking, and documentation, structuring the entire package as a subscription that gradually builds toward ownership rather than a traditional short term rental or a conventional auto loan requiring a large upfront deposit. For Nigerian drivers who want a reliable vehicle but face barriers to traditional car financing, whether due to limited credit history, high collateral requirements from banks, or simply lacking the lump sum needed for an outright purchase, that bundled rent to own structure offers a more accessible entry point into vehicle ownership.

The fresh debt facility is earmarked for geographic expansion beyond Drive45's existing markets. The company plans to extend its presence into Port Harcourt, Abuja, Kano, and Kaduna, a rollout that would take the business well beyond its original base and into Nigeria's other major commercial and population centers. That expansion strategy reflects a calculated bet that the demand for accessible vehicle financing, bundled with the maintenance, insurance, and tracking services Drive45 already provides, extends well beyond Lagos into cities with their own growing middle class and commercial transport needs.

Opting for debt financing rather than equity is a notable structural choice for a company at Drive45's stage, since debt facilities like this one from TLG Capital are typically structured around funding tangible, revenue generating assets, in this case vehicles that generate predictable subscription payments, rather than diluting ownership to fund growth the way an equity round would. For an asset heavy business like vehicle financing, where the underlying vehicles themselves hold resale value and generate recurring cash flow, debt capital can be a more capital efficient way to scale a fleet than raising equity purely to purchase more cars.

With its fleet management infrastructure, tracking systems, and bundled insurance and maintenance services already proven across its initial markets, Drive45's expansion into Port Harcourt, Abuja, Kano, and Kaduna will test whether the same rent to own model that has built a base of more than 170 active vehicles can scale efficiently into new cities with their own distinct economic conditions, vehicle demand patterns, and competitive dynamics, all while continuing to manage the operational complexity of financing, insuring, and maintaining a rapidly growing fleet across multiple Nigerian states simultaneously.