Uche Cecil Izuora
A new wave of Electric Vehicles spread across Africa is beginning to emerge as
Kenyan electric mobility startup ARC Ride has secured $33.3 million to expand its electric motorcycle fleet and battery-swapping network across Africa.
The company according to report plans to add 5,000 electric motorcycles to its fleet and strengthen the battery infrastructure that keeps them running.
ARC Ride will also use the funding to expand into Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.
Led by Novastar Ventures and Norrsken22, the round attracted the International Finance Corporation (IFC), British International Investment (BII) and Proparco.
Existing investors Musashi Seimitsu and Talanton also participated.
The financing combines debt and equity, including a debt facility from BII’s Kinetic programme and Mirova.
For ARC Ride, the funding comes as electric motorcycles gain ground in African markets. Kenya, where the company started, has seen particularly rapid growth.
The country had fewer than 800 registered electric vehicles in 2022. By December 2025, that number had risen above 35,000.
Electric motorcycles accounted for about 95% of those registrations, according to industry data.
That growth is also putting more pressure on the infrastructure needed to charge and operate electric vehicles.
Electric vehicle charging consumed 8.4 million kWh in Kenya during 2025. That represented a 188 per cent increase from the previous year.
ARC Ride is therefore putting battery swapping at the centre of its expansion.
Instead of waiting for a battery to recharge, riders can exchange a depleted battery for a charged one at a swap station. This can reduce the time motorcycles spend off the road.
The company says its battery system uses an open architecture. It is designed to work with different motorcycle brands and models.
ARC Ride also uses a technology platform to track motorcycles and battery exchanges across its network. Its swap stations can operate with solar power, reducing dependence on the electricity grid.
“This funding reinforces our vision of building a robust, scalable energy and mobility network across Africa,” Jo Hurst Croft, founder of ARC Ride, said in a statement.
“Our ambition is to make electric mobility the default choice for riders across Africa by making it more accessible, more affordable and more practical than petrol alternatives. This funding allows us to scale the infrastructure required to support that transition and to do so at pace.”
ARC Ride was founded in Nairobi in 2019 to design and assemble electric two- and three-wheelers at its Nairobi plant.
The company also works with manufacturing and technology partners. In 2022, Japanese automotive supplier Musashi Seimitsu invested in ARC Ride.
The two companies have since worked on its powertrain unit and components for electric two- and three-wheelers.
ARC Ride has also started building its presence outside Kenya.
In July, the company announced a pilot in South Africa using the ARC Panther, an electric motorcycle designed for the local market.
It has been developing battery-swapping infrastructure in Gauteng and completed another pilot in Cape Town.
Hurst-Croft said in August that ARC Ride had established an assembly plant in South Africa. The company had also produced its first motorcycles for the market and has since cleared the regulatory requirements needed to begin operations there.
ARC Ride is entering a market where several companies are already investing heavily in battery swapping and electric transport.
Spiro is one of the biggest players having raised $215 million in June 2026 and secured another $55 million three weeks later.
That brought its latest funding haul to $270 million.
Other competitors include Ampersand, Roam and Ghana-based Kofa. Each is developing electric motorcycle or battery-swapping operations in African markets.
ARC Ride’s approach differs in one important area, its batteries are designed for interoperability.
That could allow motorcycles from different manufacturers to use the same battery network as the company expands.
“We back founders building category-defining platforms, and ARC Ride is exactly that,” said Ngetha Waithaka, partner at Norrsken22.
“Jo and the team have engineered a Battery-as-a-Service model whose technology, data, and network effects give it the potential to become the open standard the entire ecosystem plugs into. The unit economics are compelling, and the product is winning with riders. We are thrilled to partner with them as they scale.”
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Kenya’s electric mobility market is also receiving government support.
In February 2026, the country launched its National Electric Mobility Policy which included tax measures covering electric vehicles and batteries.
ARC Ride’s expansion will test whether battery swapping can move beyond individual company networks and become shared infrastructure for electric motorcycles.
The company believes that a wider network of readily available batteries can make that easier, while lowering some of the barriers to switching from petrol motorcycles.