Peach Cars adds ¥600M in debt to $11M Series A for Africa expansion
What's the deal? Cordia DirectionsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, the Tokyo-based operator of African used-car marketplace Peach Cars, has raised ¥600 million in debt from Japan Finance CorporationDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and Shoko Chukin BankDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. The financing follows the roughly ¥1.5 billion ($11 million) Series A the company closed in June 2025.
Why now? The quick re-raise comes barely a year after the equity round, which Cordia says was the largest Series A in African mobility. It layers debt on top of that capital rather than diluting shareholders further.
What's the endgame? Peach Cars runs a used-car marketplace in Kenya, listing over 1,500 vehicles with inspection and valuation services aimed at bringing price transparency to a fragmented market. The funds will expand its store and branch network, strengthen inspection technology, and add new services including auto loans.
The structure: Japan Finance Corporation used a hybrid scheme combining startup-support financing with warrants and overseas-expansion funding. Shoko Chukin Bank conducted its due diligence partly through a visit to Kenya to assess Peach's inspection operations on the ground.
"Visiting Kenya and directly confirming the market and Peach's inspection systems, I recognised that they are providing a new value of 'trust' to the market through Japanese-quality vehicle inspection and local operations," said Koichi Takahashi, executive officer and head of the startup sales division at Shoko Chukin Bank.
Japan Finance Corporation framed the deal as a template for backing outbound founders. "Despite constraints on fund usage and special loan schemes, we want to actively support Japan-born startups expanding in overseas markets by flexibly combining our systems," said Kentaro Kobayashi of its new business and startup support office.
The signal: The deal points to Japanese public lenders extending credit to startups whose operations sit abroad — a shift for an ecosystem where debt has rarely followed founders overseas. If the model holds, more Japan-based companies chasing growth in emerging markets could tap financing that doesn't cost them equity.
Read more: PR TIMES
