Kenya’s ARC Ride has secured a $10 million financing commitment from Mirova. Mirova is an affiliate of Natixis Investment Managers dedicated to sustainable investing. This debt facility will fund the deployment of 600 battery-swapping cabinets and 25,000 batteries in Kenya.
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The deal comes just four months after ARC Ride raised $5 million from British International Investment (BII). This shows how confident investors are with the company’s Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS) model.
Different types of investors with the same goal
While the BII investment brought catalytic development finance into ARC Ride’s growth journey, the Mirova transaction introduces blended commercial capital into Sub-Saharan Africa’s EV sector. This diversity of backers shows ARC Ride’s strength in appealing to both impact-driven DFIs and global sustainable investors.
BII’s $5M supported the deployment of 5,000 electric two-wheelers (E2Ws) and an accelerated build-out of battery-swapping stations across East Africa. On the other hand, Mirova’s $10M now focuses on Kenya and will target battery-swapping infrastructure at scale.
The transport sector contributes around 13% of Kenya’s greenhouse gas emissions. By offering fast, automated battery swaps, ARC Ride lowers the upfront costs of electric motorcycles. This helps to eliminate range anxiety as it is one of the biggest barriers to EV adoption.
Commenting on the latest funding round, Joseph Hurst-Croft, CEO at ARC Ride, said, “This partnership with Mirova marks a major milestone in our mission to make electric mobility accessible, affordable, and sustainable across Africa. With Mirova’s support, we’re not only scaling our operations in Kenya, we are laying the groundwork for a cleaner transport future across wider regions in Africa.”
Rim Azirar, Deputy Head of Emerging Market Energy Transition at Mirova, added, “ARC Ride is redefining urban mobility in Africa through a scalable model that reduces emissions and improves livelihoods. We’re proud to support their journey.”
ARC Ride has become the benchmark for standardised battery-swapping in Africa with over 170 swapping stations already operational in Nairobi. Its infrastructure allows other OEMs to plug into the ecosystem.
This double wave of investment from BII and Mirova highlights Nairobi’s emergence as a clean-tech hub and Africa’s testing ground for innovative EV solutions.
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