Spiro & Orange Money Team Up to Revolutionize African Mobility & Finance
Spiro, an electric mobility startup, and Orange Money, the mobile money division of French telco Orange, have joined forces to revolutionize access to finance and transportation in Africa. The ambitious partnership aims to provide affordable electric mobility and AI-driven microloans to the unbanked population.
Spiro, currently operating a fleet of 40,000 bikes across six African countries, plans to nearly triple its fleet to 103,000 active bikes by the end of 2025. This expansion is set to begin in Burkina Faso, with Mali and Botswana following suit, targeting Orange's 110 million mobile users across 17 countries. The service, which costs around $5.32 per day including maintenance, insurance, and up to seven battery swaps, will be a game-changer for urban mobility.
Meanwhile, Orange Money, in collaboration with South African fintech JUMO, is launching AI-based lending for mobile users in cities such as Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Dakar (Senegal), and Bamako (Mali). JUMO's smart algorithms analyze users' spending, saving, and airtime top-up habits to facilitate instant loan approval and transactions. This partnership adds another layer to the growing trend of telcos becoming lenders in Africa, with PalmPay offering similar services in Nigeria. Around 42% of adults in Africa still lack access to formal financial services, despite mobile money and fintech growth in 2025. Orange handled over €160 billion ($173 billion) in transactions in 2024 alone, betting big on financial services.
The Spiro and Orange Money partnership is set to transform access to both affordable electric mobility and financial services in Africa. By 2025, Spiro aims to achieve 10x growth in bike deployment, while Orange Money and JUMO will provide AI-driven microloans to the unbanked population, using mobile-based risk models to keep defaults below 4%.
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