Nigerian electric mobility company MAX pushes funding round to $29 million after a new investment from Nithio, a U.S. climate finance firm. MAX said it will use the money for vehicle financing, battery swapping and clean transport services in West and Central Africa.
The investment adds to the $24 million equity and debt round MAX announced in January. Nithio’s contribution pushes funding round proceeds to $29 million, though the companies did not disclose its share.
How MAX Pushes Funding Round Into Mobility
Founded in 2015, MAX provides electric vehicles to commercial drivers through subscriptions. Drivers in its “MAX Champions” program pay a daily fee rather than buying a vehicle outright. It also runs battery-swapping stations, digital payments and fleet management.
MAX operates in 20 cities across Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon. It says it plans to enter nine more African markets. The company reports deploying more than $56 million in fleet financing and recovering $44 million in repayments. It also says it became profitable in Nigeria in January. Those figures are company-reported; MAX has not published audited accounts, and it has not said whether its Ghana and Cameroon operations are profitable.
Other startup funding coverage includes Active Label’s funding round, a separate investment story.
Nithio’s Clean Energy Focus
Nithio has mostly financed clean energy businesses. It uses data and artificial intelligence to assess borrowers in markets where credit histories are thin. Electric transport extends that work into vehicle financing and the capital operators need for batteries and charging infrastructure. Its latest investment pushes funding round proceeds beyond MAX’s January financing, with the combined total reaching $29 million.
In February, Nithio provided a $7 million debt facility to electric motorcycle company Spiro. The facility was part of a $50 million round that included Afreximbank. Spiro is also a MAX supplier, giving Nithio exposure to two companies that depend on one another.
Related coverage includes Asian startup funding and AI and Manus’s funding, separate company stories.
Costs, Partners and Expansion Targets
MAX says its electric vehicles reduce combined energy and maintenance costs by more than 40 percent compared with petrol bikes. The company also says it has 1 megawatt-peak of solar capacity, while its energy hubs deliver electricity at half the cost of Nigeria’s top grid tariff. Riders still need earnings to cover subscriptions, with swap stations along their routes.
The company works with several vehicle and battery partners. Through Spiro, it has scaled to nearly 7,000 electric motorcycles toward a first phase of 10,000. MAX works with NOVR on batteries offering more than 150 kilometers of range. In Ghana, it partners with Kofa and manufacturer TailG, using Kofa’s swapping network. MAX also operates an assembly plant in Ibadan with reported capacity of 3,600 vehicles a month.
Different vehicle platforms and battery systems give MAX options but can raise maintenance costs as the fleet grows.
Power and charging access remain constraints. Nigeria’s grid delivers about 4,000 megawatts to more than 200 million people, and outages are routine. Public charging is sparse: Reuters reported about 48 public charging stations in Nigeria by late 2025, mostly in Lagos and Abuja, compared with more than 500 in South Africa. Electric vehicles make up less than 1 percent of Nigeria’s fleet.
Nigeria exempted electric vehicles from value-added tax in 2024 and cut import duties to zero this year. The government also approved tax waivers for nearly 4,000 electric vehicles in the first half of 2026. Lower import costs do not resolve unreliable power, scarce spare parts or thin service networks.
MAX says it has served 60,000 operators and wants to support 250,000 drivers and reach more than $150 million in annual recurring revenue by 2027. Reaching that target means roughly quadrupling its driver base in about a year while keeping repayment rates high and costs low. The new funding will support that expansion, while MAX’s stated Nigeria profitability and ability to operate in additional markets remain central to its growth plans.
