Africa's EV Future Funded
Spiro Raises $270 Million to Accelerate Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Across Africa
Anonymous
Key Points
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NewTrails Capital, which committed $55 million, is described as a Chinese growth-stage investor with “strategic locations in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Nigeria.”
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NewTrails co-founder Yufan Zhang said Spiro’s “energy revolution” pitch is backed by the potential for the business to become “an infrastructure-like business that creates meaningful commercial, social, and environmental value.”
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Spiro founder Gagan Gupta emphasized specific drivers behind the model’s scalability, highlighting “deeply localized operating capabilities,” a “vertically integrated supply chain,” a “digitally enabled ecosystem,” “sound unit economics,” and “strong ability to scale rapidly.”
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One report specifies that Spiro’s seven-market operations focus on “electric two-wheel mobility supported by a battery-swapping network.”
African electric mobility company Spiro has closed a $270 million funding round, capping a nine-month sprint that has raised $420 million in total since October 2025, according to Africa Private Equity News. The final piece was a $55 million equity injection from NewTrails Capital, a Chinese growth-stage fund with offices in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Nigeria.
Spiro now runs more than 100,000 electric motorcycles and 2,500 battery-swapping stations across seven African markets, completing over 30 million battery swaps to date, MEXC reported. The company says it has moved well beyond proof of concept and is ready to scale fast.
How Spiro Raised $420M in Nine Months
The fundraising began in October 2025, when Spiro pulled in $100 million led by FEDA, the impact arm of Afreximbank, according to Streamline Feed. In February 2026, it added $50 million in debt from Afreximbank, Nithio, and the Africa Go Green Fund to build out more swapping stations.
By June 1, 2026, Spiro had locked in an initial $215 million equity round backed by Impact Fund Denmark and Equitane. NewTrails then pushed the total to $270 million on June 22. That makes Spiro's total capital raised over nine months one of the fastest funding builds in African startup history, according to CXO Digital Pulse.
Battery Swapping in Under Three Minutes Changes the Game
Spiro did not build a traditional EV charging network. Instead, it created a battery-swapping model built for Africa's motorcycle taxi economy. A rider pulls into a station and swaps a dead battery for a fully charged one in under three minutes — as fast as filling up with petrol, according to Streamline Feed.
By separating the battery cost from the motorcycle purchase price, Spiro lowered the upfront cost for riders. The result: riders save $1 to $2 per day compared to petrol bikes, and cut daily operating costs by 25% to 40%. A verified study in Kenya found the electric motorcycles produced 72% less climate impact than fossil-fuel bikes.
NewTrails Sees an Infrastructure Business, Not Just a Startup
NewTrails founding partner Yufan Zhang said Spiro can become "an infrastructure-like business that creates meaningful commercial, social, and environmental value," according to Africa Private Equity News. That framing matters. Analysts note that Western VCs have largely pulled back from capital-heavy physical networks in Africa, while Chinese growth funds are leaning in.
Spiro founder Gagan Gupta pointed to five pillars behind the model's growth: "deeply localized operating capabilities," a "vertically integrated supply chain," a "digitally enabled ecosystem," "sound unit economics," and a "strong ability to scale rapidly," per MEXC. The company's valuation is now nearing $1 billion, edging Spiro toward Africa's rare unicorn club.
DRC, Ethiopia, and Made-in-Africa Manufacturing Come Next
Spiro already runs assembly plants in Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda. With the new funding, it aims for 80% local value addition by early 2027 and plans to begin battery assembly on the continent later this year, according to CXO Digital Pulse. The company is targeting 5,000 swapping stations by the end of 2026, up from 2,500 today.
The next expansion push targets the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia — large, complex markets that need the infrastructure-first approach Gupta described, per Africa Private Equity News. African governments in Togo, Benin, and Kenya are increasingly treating Spiro as a strategic partner for cutting dependence on imported fuel and building industrial sovereignty.
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