IN SHORT: Ethiopian electric mobility startup Dodai has closed a $13 million Series A round split between $8 million in equity and $5 million in debt from British International Investment, to accelerate deployment of electric motorbikes and a battery-swapping network across Addis Ababa. The company has deployed over 2,000 locally assembled electric bikes since its founding three years ago. It targets 30,000 users and 1,000 battery-swapping stations in Addis Ababa within three years, before expanding to Abidjan, Kinshasa, Accra and Dar es Salaam.
Dodai, the Addis Ababa-based electric mobility startup founded by Japanese entrepreneur Yuma Sasaki, has raised $13 million in a Series A round to scale what may be Africa’s most concentrated bet on electric two-wheelers: 1,000 battery-swapping stations in a single city within three years, in a country that has banned petrol vehicle imports and is rapidly becoming the continent’s most aggressive electric vehicle market.
The round was announced April 28-29. Equity investors include Value Chain Innovation Fund, UTokyo Innovation Platform, Nagase, Persistent ACV Fund, For Seasons, CBC and Inclusion Japan. BII, the UK’s development finance institution, provided the $5 million debt tranche.
- Dodai’s model sits at the intersection of hardware, infrastructure and financial services. The company locally assembles electric motorbikes at its Addis Ababa facility, feeds them into a proprietary battery-swapping network where riders can replace a depleted battery in minutes rather than waiting for a charge, and finances bikes through monthly payment plans via microfinance partner Vision Fund. Riders who switch from petrol bikes cut fuel and maintenance costs by 80 to 90%.
- Ethiopia’s policy environment is unusually favourable. The government banned imports of fuel-powered private vehicles in 2024, extended the ban to gasoline and diesel trucks in 2025, and has approximately 100,000 electric vehicles on its roads. That policy architecture removes the low-cost petrol-bike competition that has constrained EV adoption in most other African markets. In Addis Ababa, the question is not whether electric mobility will happen. The question is which company builds the dominant network.
- Sasaki was deliberate about choosing Ethiopia over larger but more competitive markets. “Nigeria and Kenya are attractive but crowded. Ethiopia and the DRC are large but difficult, with fewer competitors. That means more impact if we succeed,” he said. Three years in, Dodai has deployed over 2,000 bikes and employed approximately 100 people, 97% of whom are Ethiopian.
- The Series A targets will be achieved in two stages. In the next 12 months: 3,000 battery-swapping users and 30 stations across Addis Ababa. In three years: 30,000 users and 1,000 stations, making Dodai’s Addis Ababa network one of the most concentrated e-mobility infrastructure deployments in Africa. Expansion into other cities would follow, with Abidjan, Kinshasa, Accra and Dar es Salaam as the stated targets.
- BII CEO Leslie Maasdorp called Ethiopia “one of Africa’s most compelling frontier markets for the clean mobility transition.” BII has been building a portfolio approach to East African e-mobility: beyond Dodai, it has backed ARC Ride’s 5,000 electric two-wheelers in Kenya and Ampersand’s battery fleet in Rwanda. The investments are coordinated through BII’s Africa Resilience Investment Accelerator, co-funded with FMO and Proparco, targeting frontier markets.
- Dodai faces genuine operational challenges. Customs clearance for electric components can take over three weeks in Ethiopia. Motorcycle registration can extend to six months. Supply chain disruptions are frequent in a country still developing its import infrastructure. These constraints are precisely why Sasaki bet on the market: the difficulty deters competitors.
- The competitive context is sharpening. Spiro, the pan-African operator that has deployed over 80,000 electric motorcycles across six countries and completed over 30 million battery swaps, raised $150 million across two rounds in 2025 and early 2026. ARC Ride and Ampersand are both active in East Africa. Dodai’s differentiation is depth in a single market rather than breadth across many.
Dodai SVP Hilina Legesse said: “In just two years, we have deployed over 2,000 electric motorcycles, enabling more than 2,000 riders to earn a living. From overnight assembly to building operations from the ground up, every constraint became something we chose to take on and solve.”
The Bigger Picture: Dodai is a bet on a thesis that runs counter to how most African tech investors think about market selection. The conventional wisdom says go where the market is largest and most familiar: Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Egypt. Sasaki went to Addis Ababa because the difficulty creates defensibility. Ethiopia has banned petrol vehicles, creating structural demand for alternatives. It has a young population, a growing logistics sector, and a government that wants EV infrastructure. And it has very few serious competitors building the underlying network. If Dodai can make the battery-swapping model work at scale in Addis Ababa, it has a blueprint it can export to exactly the markets that seemed too difficult to everyone else.
Source: TechCabal / Tech In Africa / Ecofin Agency, April 28-29, 2026
