ARC Ride has completed a $33.3 million funding round to help accelerate the rollout of its battery swapping infrastructure and expand access to affordable electric bikes.
This funding round was led by Novastar Ventures and Norrsken22, with IFC, British International Investment (BII) and Proparco joining as co-investors. Existing investors Musashi Seimitsu, the Japanese Tier-1 automotive supplier, and Talanton, the African impact investor, reaffirmed their conviction, committing further capital in the round. This rouind also included a debt facility from BII’s Kinetic programme and Mirova.
Commenting on this, Jo Hurst Croft, Founder of ARC Ride, said, “Our ambition is to make electric mobility the default choice for riders across Africa by making it more accessible, more affordable and more practical than petrol alternatives. This funding allows us to scale the infrastructure required to support that transition and to do so at pace.”
ARC Ride will use the new capital to expand across multiple sub-Saharan African markets, support platform and battery-swapping infrastructure development and build operational scale across existing and new markets.
ARC Ride offers a fully integrated end-to-end climate solution that supports both emissions reduction and improved economic outcomes for riders. This is helpful as electricity grids across the continent are seeing greater contributions from renewable energy. The company says electric mobility is not just about climate imperative but is also a pathway to sustainable industrialisation and economic inclusion across Africa.
Steve Beck, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Novastar Ventures added, “ARC Ride is helping solve one of the biggest barriers to electric mobility in Africa: reliable, extensive battery-swapping infrastructure. Alongside electric motorcycles designed specifically for commercial riders, ARC Ride has built a model that’s proving itself in Kenya and expanding into Ghana, Uganda and South Africa.”
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