EV Maker Spiro Bags Fresh $55M from NewTrails Capital
TLDR
- Spiro secures additional $55 million from NewTrails Capital, totaling latest funding round to $270 million as it expands electric mobility in Africa.
- Anant Badjatya appointed as Spiro's new CEO, reinforcing the company's battery-swapping network growth in India.
- Spiro focuses on scaling battery swapping, manufacturing, and energy infrastructure, highlighting Chinese capital influence and the importance of reliable service networks for commercial use.
Spiro raised an additional $55 million from NewTrails Capital, bringing its latest funding round to $270 million as the electric motorcycle and battery-swapping company expands across Africa.
The investment follows a $215 million equity raise announced earlier this month. Spiro’s total disclosed funding now stands at about $557 million, making it one of Africa’s most funded electric mobility companies.
The new capital comes less than 2 weeks after Spiro appointed Anant Badjatya as group chief executive officer. Badjatya previously led Indofast Energy, where he oversaw a battery-swapping network of more than 1,800 stations in India.
Founded in 2022 by Gagan Gupta, Spiro says it has deployed more than 100,000 electric vehicles and built over 2,500 battery-swapping stations across 7 countries. Its markets include Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Nigeria. The company plans to use the funding to expand battery swapping, manufacturing and energy infrastructure.
NewTrails Capital said it sees Spiro as an infrastructure-like business that combines vehicles, batteries, energy, payments and service networks. The investment also deepens Spiro’s links to Chinese capital and suppliers. The company has previously sourced batteries from Chinese manufacturers, including an $11.6 million supply deal with CBAK Energy Technology, while saying that 30% of its motorcycle value is now produced locally.
Key Takeaways
Spiro’s latest funding shows that electric mobility in Africa is moving from pilot projects to infrastructure-scale investment. The company is not only selling electric motorcycles. It is building a system that includes vehicles, batteries, swap stations, payments, service networks and manufacturing. That matters because motorcycle taxis and delivery riders need uptime, low operating costs and fast battery access. Battery swapping can solve part of the charging problem, but only if the network is dense enough and reliable enough for daily commercial use. NewTrails’ investment also shows the role of Chinese capital and supply chains in Africa’s EV transition. China brings battery, manufacturing and mobility experience that can help Spiro scale faster. The challenge is execution across many markets. Spiro must manage local regulation, battery quality, station economics, rider financing, electricity supply and maintenance. If it succeeds, the company could become one of Africa’s main clean mobility platforms. If it misses on unit economics or reliability, scale could become expensive to sustain.
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