Electric motorcycle company Spiro has secured a $7 million (Sh903 million) debt financing to accelerate the expansion of its electric bike fleet and battery-swapping network across Kenya and other African markets.
The funding comes from climate-focused financier Nithio through its Facility for Adaptation, Inclusion and Resilience fund, a private investment vehicle that backs firms providing household energy assets such as solar home systems and productive-use appliances. The capital will also bolster Spiro’s working capital base.
Spiro Deputy Country Head for Kenya, Raymond Kitunga, said the company is targeting rapid scale-up of its battery-swapping stations, dealership network and after-sales support.
“We have 40 dealers across Kenya, and we seek to increase to 100 by the end of the year,” he told the Business Daily in an interview.
The firm is currently operational in 30 counties and aims to expand to all 47 counties by the close of 2026, he said. Founded in 2022, Spiro is a subsidiary of Dubai-based investment vehicle Equitane and is headquartered in Dubai, with its main operations hub in Nairobi.
The company describes itself as Africa’s largest electric mobility company, running an assembly and battery-swapping network for electric two-wheelers.
Spiro also operates in Togo, Benin, Rwanda, Uganda and Nigeria, with more than 80,000 electric motorcycles and over 2,500 battery-swapping stations across its markets.
Most of its bikes are used commercially by motorcycle taxi operators, locally referred to as boda bodas. The company estimates that running costs for an e-bike are at least 30 per cent lower than a petrol bike.
Spiro has four assembly facilities in Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda. The bikes are assembled from knockdown kits imported from China, with some spare parts sourced from India. Mr Kitunga said the Kenyan plant produces up to 50,000 electric motorcycles annually.
The company says about 30 percent of each motorcycle’s value is locally sourced.
Last year, Spiro raised $100 million (Sh12.9 billion) to expand production, in what it described as the continent’s largest capital raise in the electric mobility sector. The fundraising was led by the Fund for Export Development in Africa, the development arm of Afreximbank.
Nithio, which has operations in Kenya, Nigeria and the United States, runs a blended-finance platform pooling commercial, development finance and philanthropic capital. Its backers include The Shell Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, FSD Africa and The Rise Fund.
The firm says it invests in local household energy companies that reach last-mile customers. In Kenya, Nithio has also financed the solar irrigation technology provider SunCulture, as well as asset-financing and solar energy companies d.light, M-KOPA and Sun King.
