Nairobi-based Spiro has secured $18 million in new debt to scale its e-motorcycle fleet and battery swapping network across Uganda and Rwanda.
Operating in seven African nations, Spiro sells and leases electric two-wheelers to delivery riders, fleet operators and logistics companies. Under a battery subscription model, riders can swap depleted batteries for fully charged ones at Spiro’s swap stations.
The new debt comes from Africa Go Green, a climate fund managed by Cygnum Capital, which now doubles its financing in Spiro to $36 million less than a year after its initial $18 million investment.
Spiro will funnel the new funding into Uganda and Rwanda, two markets that the company’s Mobility CEO Kaushik Burman reports are amongst the top performing.
“The focus is on Uganda and Rwanda not because the other markets are not doing well but because these two are our best performing alongside Kenya,” Burman told Zag Daily. “The decision is highly led by the number of bikes on the road, the growth in battery swapping infrastructure and the policies driving electric mobility in Uganda and Rwanda.”
Spiro operates in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Cameroon with more than 135,000 electric motorcycles spread between these seven markets. Expansion is being planned into other markets including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana and Mali.
Uganda and Rwanda account for close to 80,000 of Spiro’s total vehicles. Burman said that the company has more than 33,000 e-motorcycles currently deployed in Uganda and over 40,000 in Rwanda.
“This year, we’ve doubled the fleet of e-motorcycles in both countries,” he said. “We’ve added between 15,000 to 20,000 new vehicles in both markets in 2026 alone.”
The company declined to disclose a target for how large it wants to grow the Rwanda and Uganda fleets with the new financing.
Beyond the vehicles, Spiro will roll out more of the battery-swapping infrastructure that powers them.
The company, which reports more than 50 million battery swaps across all of its markets to date, plans to deploy “mega battery-swap” stations. These stations can hold between 200 and 800 batteries each.
Spiro already has 10 mega battery-swap stations operational in Rwanda and one in Kenya. Burman said the company will use the financing to increase the number of these stations in those nations and bring the first mega battery-swap stations to Uganda.
“The goal is to ensure that, as drivers transition, they have a reliable network and available batteries at any point,” Burman said. “We’re incorporating solar into our battery swapping stations in case there’s grid unreliability in one of these countries, so that we’re ahead of the curve and don’t find ourselves in the position where our swapping infrastructure is affected because of power outages.”
The new debt follows a $270 million equity raise this June, $50 million in debt earlier in the year and another $100 million raise last October.
Laurène Aigrain, Managing Director of the Africa Go Green Fund, said the decision to increase investment in Spiro reflects “strong progress” and a “continued confidence” in the company since the fund’s initial investment.
“By making electric mobility solutions more accessible and affordable, Spiro is tackling two critical challenges at once: cutting transport emissions and giving riders a smarter, more cost-effective way to move,” said Aigrain.
