African electric mobility company Spiro has appointed Ram Ramanathan as its new Group Chief Financial Officer as it expands its electric motorcycle, battery-swapping and energy infrastructure operations across Africa.
The appointment, announced on September 25, brings an executive with about three decades of international finance and general management experience into the company’s senior leadership team. Ramanathan has previously held senior roles at IFFCO Group, Landmark Group and PepsiCo.
His career spans strategic and operational finance, mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, treasury, corporate governance and financial transformation. Brandspur Banking News Desk reports that Spiro said Ramanathan has worked across more than 90 countries, led 22 cross-border transactions and helped arrange more than $5 billion in equity and international debt financing.
At Spiro, Ramanathan will oversee financial planning and performance, capital allocation, treasury, governance and financing. He will also support investment decisions involving the company’s electric vehicles, battery-swapping network, manufacturing capacity and energy infrastructure.
The appointment comes as Spiro pursues a major expansion backed by fresh financing. In June, the company said its latest funding round had reached $270 million after securing a $55 million investment from Chinese growth-stage fund NewTrails Capital. The funding is expected to support the expansion of its battery-swapping network, industrial footprint and electric vehicle infrastructure across Africa.
Spiro also secured $50 million in debt financing in February from the African Export-Import Bank, Nithio and the Africa Go Green Fund, managed by Cygnum Capital. At the time, the company said it had deployed more than 80,000 electric motorcycles and operated over 2,500 battery-swapping stations.
Financing has continued since then. On September 21, the Africa Go Green Fund announced an additional $18 million commitment to Spiro, bringing its total financing commitment to $36 million. The additional funds are expected to support more electric motorcycle deployments and battery-swapping infrastructure in Uganda and Rwanda.
Spiro said that by September 2026 it had deployed more than 135,000 electric motorcycles and completed over 50 million battery swaps across seven active African markets.
The company has also entered into a partnership with Chinese electric two-wheeler manufacturer Yadea as part of its efforts to expand electric mobility across the continent. Spiro currently has assembly facilities in Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda.
Ramanathan’s appointment therefore comes at a significant stage in Spiro’s expansion, with the company increasing its vehicle deployments and infrastructure while securing additional capital to support operations across its African markets.
