TechVoicesSpiro raises $215 million to put battery swaps on more African roads
The electric two-wheeler company, already in seven countries, is using the equity round to add assembly, recycling, and new markets including the DRC, Ethiopia, and Ghana.
Illustration. Reporting is based on company statements and published accounts of the round or the bill.
Spiro has closed a $215 million equity round to expand electric motorcycles and battery-swapping stations across Africa. Impact Fund Denmark and Equitane are among the investors.
The company already operates in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, and Cameroon. The new capital is meant for more swap stations, local assembly, battery recycling, and entries into the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, and Ghana. Spiro has said it wants to be in 20 new markets by 2027.
Two-wheelers still do most of the short trips in African cities. Riders who switch to electric bikes avoid fuel, but only if a charged battery is as easy to find as a petrol station. Swapping, rather than waiting on a plug, is the bet.
Spiro is not alone. Ampersand in Kigali, Zembo in Uganda, and Kenya’s Roam and Arc Ride are building their own versions of the same idea. In September, Arc Ride raised $33.3 million and Spiro itself took $18 million in debt from the Africa Go Green Fund, separate from this equity round. Spiro says the wider operation supports about 6,000 direct and indirect jobs.
The round is the largest mobility cheque on the continent’s recent ledger, and it lands in a month when African startup funding is otherwise uneven. For riders, the test is simpler than the cap table: whether a swap point is open when the battery runs out.
