Spiro, leading manufacturer of electric motorcycle, bikes and scooters in Africa, has appointed Kaushik Burman as the company’s Co-CEO with effect from August 14, 2023 to serve alongside Jules Samain.

Spiro, which launched in 2022, says Burman’s appointment strengthens the firm’s leadership significantly as it spearheads the transition to Electric Vehicles (EVs) across the continent of Africa.

Burman previously worked as General Manager (GM) at Gogoro Inc and Managing Director at Gogoro India, a NASDAQ listed electric mobility and battery swapping infrastructure firm.

Gogoro India is the world’s largest electric scooter and battery swapping firm and he is credited for leading its global expansion in Indonesia (Gojek), Philippines (Globe/Ayala JV), Korea (Bike Bank) and built Gogoro in India.

Before joining Gogoro, Burman worked at Shell plc across Europe and Asia, where he led a number of teams in sales, marketing and customer operations.

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He was a founding team member of Shell’s DLNG, (Liquified Natural Gas for B2B transport fuel), developed the Go-To-Market strategy & execution of DLNG and was the GM of Shell Fleet Solutions (Singapore & Indonesia).

Burman holds an INSEAD Full-time MBA (2011) and has also completed an advanced technology & policy program from the Harvard Kennedy School.

The new Spiro Co-CEO is a trained Mechanical engineer from University College of Engineering (OU, Hyderabad) with Distinction, and has an MBA from FMS Delhi.

“Spiro has nearly 10,000 motorcycles today and more than two million swaps in only 13 months of operations, created hundreds of jobs, and our services have positively impacted thousands of customers in Benin, Togo, and Rwanda,” said Samain on the appointment.

He added, “I welcome Kaushik to the team and we join hands together in taking SPIRO through its next phase of growth to hyperscale in Africa as well as globally.’’

The African startup has been leading sustainable transportation and e-mobility in Africa and is a leading provider of clean energy with a growing presence in Benin, Togo, Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya.