Spiro, Africa’s largest electric mobility company, has appointed Kaushik Burman as CEO of its Mobility Business following a strategic leadership restructuring. Burman, who served as the company’s CEO since August 2023, will now focus on electric vehicle deployment, rider leasing programs, battery subscriptions, and fleet operations across Spiro’s seven active markets. The transition comes on the heels of a landmark $215 million equity raise and the acquisition of UK-based engineering firm Coexlion, as the company enters its next phase of continental expansion. We spoke with Burman about how the new capital will be deployed and what lies ahead for electric mobility in Africa.
1. How will Spiro allocate the $215 million raised in this round across battery-swapping infrastructure, local manufacturing, and new market expansion?
The previous fundraising rounds were instrumental in validating and strengthening Spiro’s model. They enabled Spiro to build the technology platform, optimize our product portfolio, deploy our battery-swapping ecosystem at scale, and demonstrate that electric mobility can work commercially across Africa.
Today, that validation phase is behind us. With operations in seven countries, more than 100,000 electric vehicles deployed, 2,500 battery-swapping stations, and over 30 million battery swaps completed, Spiro has successfully proven its model and is now entering a new phase focused on scaling.
Alongside battery-swapping network expansion, the expansion of local manufacturing capacity, and entry into additional African markets, this new funding will also support engineering and new product lines development following the acquisition of the design firm Coexlion and the upcoming launch of our first African R&D center in Kenya.
2. Egypt has a large and growing two-wheeler market, a strong manufacturing base, and rising fuel costs. Does Spiro consider Egypt as part of its next wave of expansion?
Our ambition is to expand well beyond our current seven markets, towards around 20 African markets over the coming years. Egypt and the MENA region more largely are options we are strongly considering.
3. What is your strategy for entering new African markets like the DRC and Ethiopia, and how do you adapt to each country’s regulatory and energy landscape?
The approach is consistent everywhere: building out the energy network first (the battery swapping stations) to solve the issue of range anxiety, which remains the main obstacle to large EV adoption.
Responding to riders’ expectations also implies creating a solid after-sales and maintenance support system through Spiro’s partner mechanics. On the energy side, we adapt to local conditions directly—where the grid is unreliable, we deploy our own solar panels and feed that energy into the batteries.
4. How does Spiro’s model of solar-powered, IoT-enabled swap stations work in areas where grid infrastructure is unreliable, or electricity costs are high?
Where the grid is unreliable or simply absent, we power the stations with our own solar panels and store that energy directly in the batteries, so a station can operate independently of the local network.
The IoT layer makes it intelligent: our IoT Hub monitors battery performance in real-time and connects the data across batteries, swap stations, home chargers, and fast chargers. What you end up with is a decentralized clean-energy network—and we are extending its value further by developing second-life uses for the batteries in stationary renewable storage.
5. What financing options does Spiro provide to help riders afford the switch from fossil-fuel motorcycles to electric vehicles?
Affordability works from two directions. First, total cost: an electric bike is cheaper to run—operating costs are 20-40% lower than a petrol bike depending on the market—and a rider can save one to two dollars a day, which directly protects their income. Our products also start at an accessible price point.
Second, the structure of financing: because an electric asset is trackable, a lender can collect repayment as a small daily installment each time the rider swaps, rather than a single monthly payment, and can see where the asset is at all times. That de-risks lending substantially. Financing costs that used to run 45-50% can come down toward 15-16%, which is what makes the switch affordable for a working rider.
