US climate fintech Nithio has provided financing to Nigerian electric mobility company MAX, extending the company’s Series B3 funding round to $29 million, the companies said. The investment, disclosed on Nithio’s website, supports MAX’s expansion of clean, affordable and inclusive mobility solutions across West and Central Africa.
The size of Nithio’s individual contribution was not disclosed. MAX, founded in 2015 and headquartered in Lagos, operates Africa’s first integrated electric vehicle and battery subscription platform, combining OEM vehicle and battery partnerships, solar-PV powered charging and battery-swapping infrastructure, IoT-enabled fleet management, digital payments and financing into a single operating system designed for African roads.
A bet on commercial viability at the intersection of climate and inclusion
For Nithio, a Washington-based climate fintech platform that has primarily invested in clean energy companies, the MAX investment represents an extension of its strategy into electric mobility. Nithio’s risk analytics engine uses customer repayment data, geospatial data and AI to standardize credit risk assessment — a capability that matters in markets where traditional credit histories are scarce.
“MAX is building a scalable platform for cleaner and more affordable mobility across Africa,” said Raghav Sachdeva, Nithio’s Chief Investment Officer. “Its ability to combine technology, financing and operational expertise is helping transport operators access productive assets while improving the economics of their businesses. We see a strong alignment between MAX’s commercial model and the climate and financial inclusion outcomes it can deliver.”
The investment follows Nithio’s earlier entry into e-mobility. In February 2026, Nithio provided a $7 million debt facility to Spiro, the Kenyan electric motorcycle company, as part of a broader $50 million debt round that also included Afreximbank and the Africa Go Green Fund. Spiro, which operates 100,000 electric motorcycles and 2,500 swap stations across seven African markets, has since raised a further $215 million in equity.
MAX’s operating model and scale
MAX’s platform is built around what it calls “MAX Champions” — commercial transport operators who pay a daily subscription fee with zero upfront cost to access income-generating electric vehicles. The company reported in January 2026 that it had reached profitability in Nigeria, its largest and most complex market, after deploying over $56 million in fleet financing and repaying $44 million to date.
“Profitability in Nigeria proves that electric mobility in Africa is not a future concept,” said Adetayo Bamiduro, co-founder and CEO of MAX. “This capital allows us to scale faster, deepen clean energy infrastructure, and build a truly pan-African mobility platform.”
MAX operates in 20 cities across three countries — Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon — and has expansion pipelines covering nine additional African markets. Its assembly facility in Ibadan has the capacity to produce up to 3,600 vehicles per month, supporting two- and three-wheel EVs. The company says it has empowered more than 60,000 Champions, facilitated over 1 billion trips, and helped avoid an estimated 238,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
On the infrastructure side, MAX’s extended energy network — which includes partner swap stations from Spiro and Kofa alongside MAX’s own — spans 288 battery cabinets across 143 swap locations, powered in part by 1MWp of solar-PV generation capacity that has produced more than 200,000 kWh of clean energy to date. MAX says its solar-powered energy hubs deliver a levelized cost of energy that is 50 per cent cheaper than Nigeria’s Band A grid tariff.
That tariff, the highest service category under Nigeria’s service-based electricity framework, is listed at N209.50 per kilowatt-hour for the applicable category. Small-scale solar LCOE in Nigeria has dipped to N85–140 per kWh, according to one analysis, below the grid tariff for Band A consumers.
The economics of electric mobility in Nigeria
The context for MAX’s growth is a Nigerian transport sector under severe cost pressure. Petrol prices have risen sharply since the federal government removed the fuel subsidy in May 2023, when pump prices jumped from N184 per litre to over N600. As of October 2026, petrol sells for between N1,350 and N1,409 per litre in Abuja and Lagos, with marketers raising prices despite a federal discount initiative.
For commercial riders, fuel represents 40 to 60 per cent of daily earnings, according to industry analysis. MAX says its electric vehicles, paired with solar-powered swap stations, cut drivers’ total energy and maintenance costs by more than 40 per cent compared to petrol-powered alternatives at current Nigerian pump prices.
“Nithio’s investment validates the model we’ve built at MAX: mobility that is clean, affordable and pays for itself,” Bamiduro said. “With partners like Spiro, NOVR, Kofa, and a growing network of gas stations that host our solar-powered swap cabinets, we’re not just deploying electric vehicles. We are orchestrating the digital and physical infrastructure layers that commercial drivers across Africa need to earn more and spend less.”
Challenges remain
Nigeria’s electric mobility ambitions face significant infrastructure constraints. The country’s grid supplies approximately 4,000 megawatts for more than 200 million people, one of the lowest levels of per-capita power availability among major economies. Charging stations, dealerships and battery-swapping operators frequently rely on diesel and petrol generators during outages, according to Reuters.
Public charging infrastructure remains limited, with about 48 public EV charging stations as of late 2025, mostly in Lagos and Abuja, compared with more than 500 in South Africa. EVs account for less than 1 per cent of Nigeria’s total vehicle fleet, though the government’s 2022 Energy Transition Plan projects that EVs will make up 60 per cent of the fleet by 2050.
Nigeria has moved to support adoption, exempting EVs from value-added tax in 2024 and cutting import duties to zero this year from 5 per cent. The government approved tax waivers for nearly 4,000 electric vehicles in the first half of 2026 alone.
A growing portfolio
Nithio’s investment in MAX builds on its broader commitment to financing Africa’s clean mobility transition. The firm, founded in 2018, has invested in clean energy companies including SunCulture, a solar water pumping company, and has committed capital to solar home system providers across sub-Saharan Africa.
For MAX, the Series B3 extension adds to a $24 million equity and debt round raised in January 2026, backed by Equitane DMCC, Novastar Ventures, Triple Jump, Endeavor Catalyst and the Energy Entrepreneurs Growth Fund. MAX has said it is targeting support for 250,000 drivers by 2027 and more than $150 million in annual recurring revenue by the same year.
The company’s OEM partnerships include Spiro, whose fleet MAX has scaled to nearly 7,000 units as part of a 10,000-unit Phase 1 rollout, and NOVR, whose next-generation battery delivers an extended range of 150km+ on a single charge — a specification designed to address range anxiety for drivers in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities where swap station density is lower. In Ghana, MAX has partnered with clean energy company Kofa and EV manufacturer TailG to deploy an electric fleet using TailG’s vehicles and Kofa’s Swap & Go battery network.
Whether MAX can replicate its Nigerian profitability across new markets — and whether Nigeria’s grid and charging infrastructure can keep pace with EV adoption — will determine how far the model travels. For now, Nithio’s bet reflects a conviction that Africa’s climate transition will be driven less by policy mandates than by the daily economics of drivers who need to earn a living.