Chinese growth capital is betting on Africa's electric motorcycle boom while Western VCs look the other way

Spiro has closed a $270M total raise after Chinese fund NewTrails Capital added a $55M tranche, pushing the African electric motorcycle operator to the edge of unicorn status. The deal spotlights a widening gap between Chinese and Western investors on African emerging-market bets, and validates a battery-swap model built for markets where Western EV orthodoxy doesn't apply.