A Chinese investment fund has taken a stake in one of Africa’s largest electric-mobility companies, helping it close its biggest funding round to date at $270 million.
Spiro, which builds electric motorcycles and runs a battery-swapping network across seven African countries, said on 22 June 2026 that it had finalised the round with a fresh $55 million from NewTrails Capital, a growth-stage fund based in Shanghai and Shenzhen with an office in Nigeria.
The new money tops up the $215 million Spiro announced at the start of June, bringing the round to a $270 million close. Earlier backers included Impact Fund Denmark, Equitane, and the Fund for Export Development in Africa, the development finance arm of the African Export-Import Bank.
Chinese capital moves into African EVs
The investment is a notable vote of confidence from Chinese capital in Africa’s electric-transport market, and it carries a supply-chain dimension. Spiro said the partnership would support its drive to localise manufacturing on the continent, in particular with Chinese suppliers.
“We believe Spiro is driving a profound energy revolution across mobility use cases in Africa,” said Yufan Zhang, founding partner of NewTrails Capital. Zhang pointed to the company’s localised operations, vertically integrated supply chain and “sound unit economics” as reasons for the bet.
100,000 bikes and counting
Spiro lets riders swap a depleted battery for a charged one in minutes, avoiding both the wait of plug-in charging and the upfront cost of buying a battery outright. The model targets the petrol motorcycle taxis that move people and goods across much of urban Africa.
The company says it has deployed 100,000 electric vehicles and more than 2,500 swap stations, and has recorded over 30 million battery swaps to date. It operates in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Togo, Benin, Nigeria and Cameroon, with manufacturing plants in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.
“Spiro has firmly moved past the proof-of-concept phase,” said Gagan Gupta, founder of Spiro and chairman of Equitane. Gupta said the round would fund the next stage of the company’s pan-African and international expansion.
Localising battery production would also tie Spiro more closely to Africa’s own raw materials, the copper and lithium that companies are now racing to map and mine across the continent. For now, the capital gives Spiro room to widen its network and defend its lead in a fast-filling market.
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