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Nairobi-based e-mobility startup Spiro, which raised $100 million in October 2025, has acquired Coexlion, a specialist engineering consultancy focused exclusively on two-wheelers and electric vehicles, with offices in the United Kingdom and Bangalore, India. The acquisition, announced by Spiro on X, is designed to bring vehicle design and engineering capabilities fully in-house as the company moves to build motorcycles purpose-built for African roads.

Why Coexlion

Coexlion is not a widely known name, but its credentials are specific and directly relevant to what Spiro is trying to build. The firm has worked with clients ranging from Triumph and Hero to EV-only manufacturers including Ather Energy, Ola, and Arc. Its work spans the entire product development cycle, from battery sizing and concept design through to supplier selection, production validation, and getting a finished vehicle off an assembly line. The firm also holds patents on a modular drive system designed specifically for electric two-wheelers. For Spiro, this is an engineering acquisition, not a prestige one.

The Scale Behind the Decision

Spiro is already Africa's largest electric motorcycle operator by deployment. The company has distributed over 95,000 electric motorcycles across the continent, operates more than 2,500 battery-swapping stations, and has processed over 30 million battery swaps to date. In Kenya alone, Spiro captured 52 percent of new electric motorbike sales in 2025. At that scale, the question is no longer whether Spiro can sell motorcycles. It is whether the motorcycles it sells are built for the roads they will actually ride on.



The Problem With Existing EV Hardware in Africa

Most electric vehicles deployed across Africa were designed elsewhere and adapted minimally, if at all, for local conditions. Rough terrain, inconsistent road surfaces, heat, dust, and the specific weight demands of motorcycle taxi work are not factors that a product engineered for European or Asian markets naturally accounts for. Spiro's acquisition of Coexlion, alongside its plan to establish a dedicated research and development centre in Kenya staffed by engineers with full design and validation capability in-house, is a direct attempt to fix that gap.

Why This Matters for Africa's EV Ecosystem

Spiro's move is one of the clearest signals yet that Africa's electric mobility sector is maturing from deployment to innovation. The first generation of African EV companies focused primarily on importing and distributing existing hardware. Spiro is now moving toward designing and validating its own vehicles, a transition that, if successful, would make it not just Africa's largest e-mobility operator but one of the continent's few vertically integrated EV manufacturers. For Nigeria, where electric motorcycle adoption is at an early but growing stage, Spiro's trajectory is a model worth watching closely.