African electric mobility company Spiro has appointed Ram Ramanathan as its new Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO), as the company continues to expand its electric motorcycle and battery-swapping operations across the continent.
The company announced the appointment on September 25, saying Ramanathan brings three decades of international finance and general management experience to the role.
Ramanathan has previously held senior finance and leadership positions at IFFCO Group, Landmark Group and PepsiCo. His experience covers strategic and operational finance, mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, treasury, corporate governance and financial transformation.
The company said he 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.
Ramanathan to oversee finance as Spiro scales
As Group CFO, Ramanathan will oversee Spiro’s finance function and support its financial strategy as the company expands its operations.
His responsibilities will include financial planning and performance, capital allocation, treasury, governance and financing. He will also support investments in the company’s electric vehicles, battery-swapping network, manufacturing and energy infrastructure.
“Ram brings a depth of financial and strategic leadership that will be highly valuable as Spiro continues to scale,” Group CEO Anant Badjatya said.
Badjatya said Ramanathan’s experience in capital markets, M&A, treasury and transformation would strengthen Spiro’s financial capabilities as it expands across Africa.
Ramanathan said he would focus on building the financial capabilities, governance and capital structures needed to support the e-mobility company’s expansion.
Read also: Spiro secures additional $18m as Africa Go Green Fund doubles its commitment to $36m
Appointment follows fresh financing
The appointment comes as Spiro has secured significant financing to expand its electric mobility operations.
In June, the company announced that it had closed its latest funding round at $270 million following a $55 million investment from Chinese growth-stage fund NewTrails Capital. The company said the funding would support the expansion of its battery-swapping network, industrial footprint and electric vehicle infrastructure across Africa.
Earlier in February, Spiro secured $50 million in debt financing from the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), 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 more than 2,500 battery-swapping stations.
The financing has continued in recent months. On September 21, Africa Go Green Fund announced an additional $18 million commitment, taking the total financing commitment to $36 million. The additional financing is expected to support the deployment of more electric motorcycles and the expansion of battery-swapping infrastructure in Uganda and Rwanda.
As of September 2026, Spiro said it had deployed more than 135,000 electric motorcycles and completed more than 50 million battery swaps across its seven active African markets.
The company also announced a partnership with Chinese electric two-wheeler manufacturer Yadea in September to expand electric mobility across Africa. At the time, the platform reported more than 130,000 electric motorcycles, more than 2,500 battery-swapping stations and over 50 million battery swaps.
Spiro currently has assembly facilities in Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda, according to its latest corporate information.
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