KAMPALA – African electric mobility platform Spiro has secured 215 million dollars in equity funding to aggressively expand its battery-swapping network and regional electric vehicle manufacturing capabilities. The landmark investment round was backed by major international institutional investors, including Equitane and Impact Fund Denmark.
The injection of capital will directly support the scale-up of Spiro’s localized industrial footprint, which already includes flagship vehicle assembly and manufacturing plants in Uganda, Kenya, and Rwanda, alongside a specialized battery recycling facility in Nigeria. The company plans to use the funds to strengthen these production hubs while expanding infrastructure into new high-growth markets, including Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Spiro has already established a significant operational footprint across seven fast-growing urban markets on the continent, deploying 100,000 electric motorcycles to date. Supporting this fleet is an expansive energy network consisting of more than 2,500 battery-swapping stations, which have collectively powered over 30 million swaps and enabled 1 billion kilometers of low-carbon travel.
Gagan Gupta, founder of Spiro and chairman of Equitane, noted that the platform has transformed sustainable mobility into an affordable reality while becoming a major driver of local industrialization and value creation. The company’s manufacturing and infrastructure operations have already generated 6,000 direct and indirect jobs.
The expansion of the battery-swapping ecosystem provides a dual benefit by offering an immediate economic buffer for riders and advancing regional clean energy goals. Operating a Spiro electric vehicle reduces daily mobility costs by up to 40 percent, saving riders about 2 dollars per day compared to fossil-fuel alternatives.
The technical platform behind the expansion is supported by Spiro’s dedicated research and development center, which employs over 150 engineers and holds more than 30 proprietary patents. This engineering capacity is driving the company’s evolution beyond urban transport into a distributed clean-energy utility network, utilizing internet-of-things-enabled, solar-powered swap stations and secondary-life battery applications for stationary renewable energy storage.
Lars Bo Bertram, CEO of Impact Fund Denmark, said the investment channels Danish pension capital into one of Africa’s most promising growth markets, driven by the strong commercial growth potential of localized electric mobility platforms and their measurable climate impacts. Third-party verified lifecycle assessments indicate Spiro’s electric bikes deliver a 72 percent reduction in climate impact compared to conventional motorcycles, avoiding roughly 19 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per vehicle lifespan.