Afreximbank has provided Spiro Electric Vehicles, an Indian manufacturer and supplier of electric vehicles the financing of$50 million to expand its products’ portfolio in existing markets. The company operates in six countries: They currently operate across West and East African countries such as Benin, Togo, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana, and intend to establish itself in Cameroon and Morocco this year.
This enterprise took the company two years to develop a perception of the different African cities and the market that may exist in them. The company has established itself as the largest operator of electric motorbikes in Africa and has primarily focused on two-wheelers.
It has 11 thousand motorbikes and 300 battery-swap stations in Benin and Togo where the service is initially introduced. Since it began operations in September 2023 in Kenya, it has provided 800 motorbikes, and it has also equally placed 300 motorbikes in Rwanda. It intends to deploy 1000 motorbikes in Uganda within the year 2024.
“We want to do 1 million units of 2-wheelers in five years,” Kaushik Burman, CEO in Kigali, expressed, where the African CEO Forum was held.
According to Burman, a properly constructed environment for electric vehicles involves all four categories of the different industry components. Thus, apart from constructing efficiently rechargeable batteries and swapping stations, the monetary resources are being spent on Internet-of-Things technology, maps, and ride-hailing applications.
“It is like Uber, but it doesn’t need bikes. But we are making bikes, and we are going to be like Uber with a ride-hailing app,” Burman said. Additionally, the app will integrate a payment feature and be accessible to both drivers and riders.
The technology features will also allow Gbanbo to track the motorbikes and the batteries and the usage. This means that while the actual ride hailing platform and various technology features that come with it seem quite comprehensive, the backbone of the application consists of an array of 50 engineers based in the company’s innovation hub in Pune, India.
BasiGo, Roam, Max, and Spiro are funded by investors to provide electric vehicles in the continent. It forecasts the market size, which is currently estimated to be $15.80 billion in 2024, to grow up to $25.40 billion in 2029.
