Spiro secures $55 million from China's NewTrails as it approaches a $1 billion valuation.

      The challenging aspect of electrifying a motorcycle in Lagos or Nairobi was never the motorcycle itself, but rather the charging process. A rider who makes money per trip cannot afford to spend hours waiting for a battery to recharge, which is why Spiro developed a business model focused on battery swapping: riders can pull in, exchange a depleted battery for a fully charged one, and leave in the time it takes to refuel with petrol.

      This approach has attracted a Chinese investor, bringing Spiro closer to becoming one of Africa's few billion-dollar startups. The company has obtained an additional $55 million from NewTrails Capital, a Chinese firm, to broaden its battery-swapping network, manufacturing capabilities, and energy infrastructure in the markets where it currently operates.

      This funding follows shortly after a $215 million equity round supported by Impact Fund Denmark, Equitane, and Afreximbank’s FEDA, raising Spiro’s total disclosed funding to approximately $557 million, among the highest amounts sourced by any electric mobility business on the continent.

      NewTrails is investing in a network rather than just a vehicle company. Spiro operates over 100,000 electric motorcycles and approximately 2,500 automated swap stations spread across seven countries: Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, and Cameroon. The firm has characterized Spiro as an “infrastructure-like business,” highlighting that a swap station, once established, generates consistent revenue similar to that of a toll road or power line. Yufan Zhang, a founding partner at NewTrails, framed the investment as a long-term bet on Africa’s energy transition rather than a fleeting opportunity in the electric vehicle market.

      Spiro is a significant enterprise rather than a small operation posing as a large one. Established in 2022 and headquartered in Dubai, it evolved from Equitane, the investment platform of its chairman, Gagan Gupta. The company has developed a technological foundation far from its markets, with a center in Pune, India, staffed by numerous engineers and holding a variety of patents.

      Part of the new funding is designated for expansion into Malawi, Mali, and Ethiopia, which would extend its reach well beyond its current operations. This follows a consistent series of fundraising efforts, including a $100 million equity round led by Afreximbank’s FEDA in October 2025, a $50 million debt facility earlier this year, the $215 million round in June, and now the NewTrails investment, all indicating the capital-intensive nature of maintaining a network of physical swap stations.

      The involvement of a Chinese investor adds more significance to the deal. China controls the supply chain that makes battery swapping feasible, from battery cells to swap station hardware, and Chinese funding has been steadily entering African infrastructure for the past two decades. A Chinese investor participating in the development of Africa’s swap network effectively illustrates the supply chain following the financial investments it provides.

      As battery swapping, previously seen as an oddity in the West, has demonstrated its most effective application in the demanding two-wheel market that Spiro addresses, this underscores a discourse TNW has closely monitored, from the feasibility of making swap stations mainstream to the idea that motorcycles might thrive where electric cars did not.

      China has been instrumental in promoting this model, keeping the technology viable when automobile manufacturers in other regions abandoned it. Spiro’s premise is that the same principles that benefit a fleet in Hangzhou can work for a boda-boda in Kampala.

      While Spiro has not revealed an exact valuation, its status as “nearing unicorn status” is self-identified rather than officially confirmed. What remains undeniable, however, is the scale of the investment now directed toward African e-mobility and that a Chinese investor recognizes the value in owning part of the continent's largest swap network.

      The motorcycles were always meant to be electric; the key question was who would establish the underlying infrastructure, with the emerging answer increasingly connected to Beijing.