EV Revolution Accelerates: Spiro Fuels African Expansion with $55M Investment
African electric mobility leader Spiro has secured $270 million in its latest funding round, including a $55 million investment from China's NewTrails Capital, boosting its total funding past $600 million. This partnership brings crucial supply chain expertise to accelerate Spiro's manufacturing and pan-African expansion, solidifying its position in the continent's rapidly growing EV market.
Spiro, a leading African electric mobility company, has successfully concluded its latest funding round, securing an impressive $270 million. This significant capital injection includes a new $55 million investment from NewTrails Capital, a prominent Chinese growth-stage investment fund. This strategic influx of Chinese capital not only provides substantial financial resources but also brings invaluable supply chain expertise to one of Africa’s most robust e-mobility platforms.
The funding round showcases a strong consortium of global institutional and impact investors backing Spiro, including Impact Fund Denmark, Equitane, FEDA, Nithio, and the Africa Go Green Fund. This marks Spiro’s third major capital infusion this year alone, following a $215 million equity round closed just three weeks prior and an earlier $50 million round led by Afreximbank. These successive rounds have pushed the company’s total funding well past $600 million across all rounds.
NewTrails Capital, with strategic presences in Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Nigeria, focuses its investments on emerging markets across Africa, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Its investment strategy aligns with global growth corridors, including China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The entry of NewTrails Capital into Spiro signifies a growing Chinese institutional interest in African clean energy infrastructure. Beyond capital, this partnership provides Spiro with direct access to crucial Chinese supply chains, which will be instrumental in supporting the company’s electric vehicle manufacturing and localization efforts across the African continent.
Gagan Gupta, Spiro’s founder and Chairman of Equitane, stated that the company has decisively moved beyond its proof-of-concept phase. He highlighted Spiro’s achievements, having successfully deployed 100,000 electric vehicles and established 2,500 smart-swap stations across seven active markets. Gupta emphasized that the partnership with NewTrails Capital’s deeply experienced team marks a powerful new chapter for Spiro, as the company prepares for its next steps in pan-African and international expansion.
Yufan Zhang, Founding Partner of NewTrails Capital, lauded Spiro’s efforts, describing its work as driving an “energy revolution” in mobility across Africa. Zhang identified Spiro’s core strengths as its deeply localized operating capabilities, vertically integrated supply chain, digitally enabled ecosystem, sound unit economics, and robust ability to scale rapidly.
Currently, Spiro operates across key African markets including Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, and Cameroon. In these regions, the company boasts over 100,000 electric motorcycles on the road, more than 2,500 battery-swapping stations, and has facilitated over 30 million completed battery swaps. Spiro has already identified the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia as its next significant expansion targets.
The involvement of NewTrails Capital is particularly vital for Spiro’s manufacturing ambitions. Given that much of the hardware for electric mobility, including batteries, motors, and charging components, still heavily relies on Chinese supply chains globally, a Chinese investor with direct relationships across this supply chain offers Spiro a more direct route to sourcing components at scale. This access is expected to facilitate greater localization of production within Africa, thereby reducing both costs and dependency on lengthy international shipping routes.
Yufan Zhang framed this investment as part of a broader, ongoing trend where Chinese capital and supply chains are playing an increasingly central role in Africa’s energy transition. He expressed optimism about the future, stating, “Spiro is still a young company, and everything today is only the beginning. We look forward to continuing to fulfil our role as a long-term investor, contributing our resources and experience, growing together with Spiro, and helping accelerate Africa’s new energy transition.” The rapid succession of these significant funding rounds within months underscores both the substantial capital now flowing into African EV infrastructure and the urgency with which Spiro is working to capture market share ahead of competitors such as Ampersand and ARC Ride.