• Afreximbank’s FEDA has led a $75 million equity investment into Spiro, Africa’s largest e-motorcycle deal, expanding the fleet from 60,000 to 100,000 battery-swap bikes by end 2025.
• Riders save an average of $3 per day on fuel and maintenance, while Spiro earns $0.50 per battery swap, creating a reliable, subsidy-free cash flow.
• Headquartered in Dubai, Spiro will deploy 3,000 solar-powered swap stations, extending operations from Nigeria and Kenya into Cameroon and Tanzania to counter unstable grids.

Afreximbank, the Cairo-headquartered but Abuja-operated trade-finance institution best known for backing container ships and commodity deals, has just closed its largest-ever venture-style cheque for an electric-mobility company: a US $75 million equity injection into Spiro, the Dubai-headquartered battery-swapping network that keeps its holding company in Mauritius.

The round, announced in March 2025, totals US $100 million and was led by the Fund for Export Development in Africa (FEDA), Afreximbank’s development arm. Every briefing note released by the bank calls it the single biggest equity bet an African institution has placed on an electric-motorcycle start-up.

The audacity is in the asset base, not the software. Spiro keeps ownership of the 1,200-plus automated swap stations and the lithium-ion batteries that slip in and out of the bikes. A rider pulls in, swaps a depleted pack for a charged one in under two minutes, and pays roughly US $0.50. That micro-transaction is logged, time-stamped and geotagged, turning the famously informal boda-boda and okada markets into a data stream that lenders can underwrite like an infrastructure project.

The unit economics rest on three dollars a day. Spiro’s own operating data – drawn from a fleet that has already grown past 60,000 vehicles across Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, Benin and Togo – shows that an average rider saves US $3 daily on fuel and maintenance when she switches from a petrol bike to Spiro’s electric model. Multiply that by tens of thousands of active riders and the savings become a predictable cash-flow pool that covers lease payments, battery depreciation and network expansion without a shilling of government subsidy.

“We don’t sell motorcycles; we sell kilometres,” says Jules Samain, Spiro’s chief executive. In practice the company both sells and leases, but the dominant revenue line is the pay-as-you-go battery subscription. Each swap station is a miniature utility: solar panels on the roof, lithium storage in the back, and a cloud-based ledger that tracks state-of-charge, cycle count and rider behaviour. The model was built for grids that blink out daily and for customers who earn in cash.

Kanayo Awani, Afreximbank’s Executive Vice-President for Intra-African Trade, has spent the last two years arguing that sustainable development on the continent should be financed on commercial, not concessional, terms. “This is not aid,” she reiterated when the Spiro deal was signed. “It is a straight equity investment with an expected return.” FEDA’s mandate is to crowd-in private capital by taking the earliest risk, and the bank hopes the stamp of approval will accelerate local assembly – already under way in four countries – and, eventually, African battery manufacturing.

The fresh capital will push Spiro from 1,200 swap stations to 3,000 and from 60,000 bikes to more than 100,000 before the end of 2025. Douala and Dar es Salaam are next on the map: Douala because it is the maritime gateway to Central Africa, Dar because the city registers over two million motorcycle taxis. Most of the new stations will be off-grid solar, insulating the network from national utilities and hedging diesel-replacement revenues against currency swings.

Risks have not vanished. Spiro still sources battery cells from Chinese suppliers, exposing it to yuan-dollar volatility and geopolitical friction. Regulations vary wildly between Lagos, Nairobi and Kigali, and every new market requires fresh licences, import-duty negotiations and rider-training academies. 

Idriss Linge