Live signals: ZENO RAISED USD 25m Series-A (Mar 26); SPIRO RAISED USD 270m (June/July 26); ARC RIDE RAISED USD 23m Series A Equity + USD 10.3m Debt (Sep26); OLA PLANS INR 1.5bn QIP; YULU USD 93m (Aug 26); E3ELECTRIC.AI RAISED USD 10.4m (Jul 26); RIVER RAISED USD120m (Aug 26); SIMPLE ENERGY RAISED USD 180m Series C Equity (Oct 26); DODAI RAISED USD 13m Series A (May 26); MATTER RAISED USD 25m (Aug 26); BGAUSS RAISED INR 1100m (Aug 26); ROAM TARGETS USD 15-20m; DAT BIKE RAISED USD 22m (Oct 25); OMOWAY Undisclosed (10s of millions of USD)(Jan 26); ULTRAVIOLETTE RAISED USD 85m Series E (Sep 26); SPIRO ADDITIONAL USD 18m Debt (Sep 26); GOGORO RAISED USD 61.8 million (Oct 2026); VENNA RAISED UNDISCLOSED Seed from BMW Motorrad(Oct 2026)
Rivian's micromobility spin-off, ALSO, has quietly pulled out of an electric motorcycle pilot in Kenya. ALSO never formally entered, so it is difficult to evaluate what the absence would mean for electric mobility in Africa. I remain skeptical that, outside of Spiro and, to some extent, SUN Mobility, there are no other players with the financial resources to set up battery-swapping networks at scale.
Venna (Flux Performance) has closed a seed round led by Allegis Capital, with BMW Motorrad and NVision Ventures participating. BMW follows Yamaha, RE, and LiveWIre, in investing in a e-motocrosser specialist.
LiveWire's CEO is gone, and a restructuring committee has been formed under a chief restructuring officer. These are strong signals that Harley-Davidson no longer wants to bleed through its electric motorcycle arm
Gogoro's USD 61.8 million equity round gives the company a cash cushion and fulfils a promise made to lenders and gives the company a cash cushion it has lacked for two years. It does not fix a stagnant Taiwan market, a heavy debt load, or a business that still cannot fund its own future.
Ultraviolette has raised USD 85 million from Deep Tech funds. This will bring the Tesseract to the market. This also brings challenges for UV - how to live up to Deep Tech?
African battery-swapping giant Spiro has lined up another hardware supplier with Yadea, the world's largest electric two-wheeler manufacturer. In an announcement made three days ago, Spiro said that they will partner with Yadea to deploy more electric motorcycles in Africa and also to develop Africa-specific products.
Kenya's ARC Ride has closed a mixed equity-and-debt round to add 5,000 motorcycles and push into four new markets. This is a significant raise by any count and makes ARC Ride a significant player in a market where Spiro overshadows everyone in access to capital.
SUN Mobility has launched an open-architecture battery swapping network in Kenya with Vivo Energy as the primary partner, more than ten vehicle partners, and a five-year plan for 2,500 stations. It is the first serious attempt to build an energy layer in Africa that belongs to nobody's vehicle.
Ola gets a respite as the GoI rebases its cell PLI scheme. This removes the penalty for late implementation and also opens the door for future subsidies to be earned.
Vmoto has a sharp sales bounceback in H1; the company continues its international expansion strategic play with JVs in Thailand and a new regional HQ in Saudi Arabia
Yamaha has another rebadged scooter as it fulfils its responsibilities as a minority shareholder in the Gachaco consortium.
Zeno makes two senior appointments, both on the charging side. We read it as a strategic shift away from swapping as the African wars get hotter
The most comprehensive deep dive into the electric two-wheeler and light-vehicle industry.
© 2026 InsightEV. All rights reserved.
Like what you read here?
I often write more in the newsletter than what I do on the website. I look forward to having you on my mailing list - Deepesh