Spiro raises $50 million to expand bikes and battery swap stations

Electric mobility company Spiro has closed a $50 million funding round led by Afreximbank, with Nithio and the Africa Go Green Fund joining as new investors.

The company will use the funds to build more battery swap stations and provide more electric motorcycles to riders in Africa. Currently, it operates in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. They are also testing their services in Cameroon and Tanzania.

The company has raised a significant amount of funding recently. Last October, they received $100 million, which was the largest investment in electric mobility in Africa at the time.

This latest funding round is their second major raise in four months, bringing their total funding to $150 million across both rounds.

Why battery swapping is the business model

Spiro doesn’t just sell electric motorcycles. The company replaces the entire system that keeps petrol bikes running with an electric alternative.

Here is how it works: Spiro sells or leases electric bikes to motorcycle taxi riders in Nigeria and East Africa. The company also builds swap stations where riders can quickly exchange their empty batteries for fully charged ones.

This eliminates the need to wait for batteries to charge and replaces traditional fuel stations. Instead of buying petrol, riders pay for battery swaps.

The company has 80,000 bikes on the road right now and operates over 2,500 swap stations across its markets. Riders have completed 30 million battery swaps to date, covering more than a billion kilometres on electric bikes.

“Demand for Spiro’s innovative, industry-leading battery swapping infrastructure continues
to grow and is reshaping mobility in Africa by providing reliable, clean transportation options
across the continent,” said Kaushik Burman, CEO of Spiro.

That’s a significant scale for a sector that barely existed in Africa two years ago.

Manufacturing locally and scaling fast

Spiro assembles motorcycles in Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, and Rwanda instead of importing finished bikes. This keeps costs manageable and builds local manufacturing capacity in countries where it operates.

The company also manufactures and circulates over 300,000 batteries across its network. When riders swap batteries, they’re pulling from this pool, which the company continuously charges and maintains.

Also read: Spiro hits $350 million valuation after new $100m funding round

For riders, the economics work because fuel costs disappear. Even with paying for battery swaps, drivers save money compared to filling up petrol bikes daily. For Spiro, the swap model creates recurring revenue; riders keep paying as long as they’re on the road.

Raghav Sachdeva from Nithio said the company has proven electric mobility can scale while delivering real value to riders and cutting emissions. The $50 million signals investors believe this model can expand beyond the eight countries where Spiro currently operates or is testing.

The funding will go toward more swap stations, technology upgrades, including automated swaps, and renewable energy integration at existing locations.

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