Africa’s electric mobility story has often been one of promise rather than progress. Infrastructure is scarce, power grids are unreliable, and most markets still run on cheap imported motorcycles. But based in Dubai Spyro has spent the last two years trying to rewrite that narrative.
The company has just announced a $100 million investment round led by the Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), the development arm of Afreximbank. The increase marks the largest electric vehicle investment in Africa in history and establishes Spiro as the continent’s most aggressive electric motorcycle company.
Spiro says it plans to deploy more than 100,000 electric bikes across Africa by the end of 2025, a 400% year-on-year jump that underscores its ambition to dominate a category long considered too fragmented to scale.
Spiro’s growth has been dizzying. When CEO Kaushik Burman The start-up, which was joined two years ago by Taiwanese battery-sharing giant Gogoro, had just 8,000 electric bikes and 150 sharing stations between the neighboring countries of Benin and Togo.
Today, it operates in six countries – including Rwanda, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda – with over 60,000 bikes deployed and 1,500 exchange stations where riders can exchange dead batteries for freshly charged ones. Battery exchanges have grown from 4 million in 2022 to over 27 million this year, Burman told TechCrunch.
The secret behind this growth, Burman says, is a business model built for Africa’s reality.
In African cities, motorcycle taxis — known as boda bodas in Kenya or okades in Nigeria — move people and goods through both congested cities and rural towns. However, for the millions of riders who rely on them, the cost of fuel is punishing.
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“These drivers spend 10 to 12 hours on the road every day, covering 150 to 200 kilometers while paying high fuel costs. At the end of each day, most of them barely save anything,” Burman said. “That’s why electric mobility, especially through a battery-swapping model, fits this segment perfectly. They can’t afford downtime and save money.”
This is the wedge that Spiro leans into. According to Burman, its electric bikes cost about 40% less than the new gas-powered models. In Kenya or Rwanda, where a typical gas bike sells for $1,300-$1,500, Spiro’s e-bikes cost about $800 and cost about 30 percent less per kilometer since changing batteries is cheaper than refueling, he says.
This combination of lower costs and faster payback has made Spiro’s model attractive to taxi drivers. Burman claims most riders – who pay a daily fee to access its energy network – save up to $3 a day on fuel and maintenance. “That’s enough to buy another bike or start a small business over time,” remarked the CEO.
Spiro earns revenue from both bike sales and its battery exchange network. Riders buy or rent a Spiro bike, pick up a charged battery from an exchange station and pay only for the energy they use. Each exchange station houses dozens of batteries that are continuously recharged, ensuring zero downtime. Riders are charged through a proprietary algorithm that measures energy usage.
The network itself is Spiro’s profit engine: By owning the battery infrastructure and charging a small fee per exchange, the company quickly achieves economies of scale. “In addition to battery switching, we also use renewable energy sources and energy storage to ensure that our grid remains operational even during a power outage,” said Burman.
Spiro’s exchange stations are located at gas stations, malls and even religious institutions, a network created through partnerships that also creates local jobs.
To meet growing demand and increase employment opportunities, the three-year-old startup has set up four assembly and manufacturing facilities in Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda. These factories assemble bicycles and essential components such as traction motors, controllers and batteries.
Spiro already assembles batteries in Kenya using its proprietary battery management system (BMS) and plans to boost local sourcing from 30% today to 70% within two years, including plastics, helmets and brake components, according to Burman.
The $100 million round — including $75 million from FEDA and the rest from other strategic investors — will help fund that expansion. It follows more than $180 million in previous investments, a mix of debt and equity from Equitane Group (Spiro’s parent company) and Société Générale.
The new capital will be used to expand Spiro’s exchange network, production capacity and R&D, as well as launch pilots in new markets such as Cameroon and Tanzania.
As it scales, Spiro will have to face increasing competition from other electric vehicle start-ups such as Ampersand, Roam, Max or BasiGo. But Burman argues otherwise.
“Our competition is the petrol bike sector, both first-hand and second-hand, and the millions of potential riders who don’t yet own a bike or don’t have access to affordable transport and employment.”
Africa has about 25 million motorcycles, compared to 320 million in India, despite similar population sizes. That 13-fold difference, he said, shows the size of the opportunity before us.
