FUNDING
Spiro takes another $18m, doubling its AfricaGoGreen facility to $36m
The debt follows an initial $18 million closed in December 2025 alongside $7 million from climate lender Nithio, and funds more bikes plus larger battery-swap hubs along commercial transport corridors, with Uganda and Rwanda the named expansion markets. The operating numbers are now substantial: seven countries, more than 135,000 electric motorcycles deployed, 2,500 swap stations and over 50 million swaps completed, with local assembly in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and Rwanda. Riders lease batteries rather than buy them, which is the whole point — it is the battery, not the bike, that prices a boda rider out of going electric.
TechTrends KE
POLICY
Two Kenyan musicians, two phone campaigns, two questions nobody settled in writing
Nyashinski is in dispute with publishing-rights holder Sam Are Eliapenda over "Wach Wach" in a 2023 Tecno Camon 20 endorsement worth about KSh12 million; the High Court has dismissed his appeal to keep the contract private, so the terms go to the Magistrates' Court. The question is whether holding master rights alone lets you license a song commercially when someone else holds publishing. Separately, Mutoriah is suing Foi Wambui over "Beta" in an August 2024 Oppo Reno 12 5G promo, and a magistrate refused her attempt to be struck out as a defendant this month. That one asks who clears a sync licence when an influencer, a brand and an agency all sign off on a campaign. Two cases, one lesson for Kenya's creator economy: the rights split is the contract.
TechTrends KE
AI
Google runs "Tutunge na Gemini" for Nairobi creators and students
At its Nairobi office today Google walked Gen Z creators, media professionals and university students through Nano Banana 2, Gemini Omni, Gemini Live for conversational brainstorming and Gems, aimed at visual assets, prototyping, product photography and promo material. It also pushed the Google AI Plus student offer for eligible Kenyan universities — advanced Gemini features, doubled usage limits and 400GB of storage across Drive, Gmail and Photos. "AI is most useful when it helps people turn their ideas into meaningful work," said Janet Kemboi, Google's head of communications for Africa. Note the company it keeps: Meta is funding an AI academy here, Anthropic shipped Docs and Slides last week, and the fight for Kenyan AI habits is being run through free training.
TechTrends KE
STARTUPS
TechTrends Media opens newsrooms in Rwanda and Uganda
The Nairobi outlet — one this digest links to most days — has launched techtrends.rw and techtrends.ug with in-country correspondents, founder and editor-in-chief Nixon Kanali framing it as telling "the full East African technology story" and offering brands one regional buy. Rwanda coverage will lean on digital government, Kigali's innovation ecosystem and Smart Africa; Uganda on mobile money and fintech, agritech and telecoms infrastructure. Worth noting for anyone reading Kenyan tech coverage: the regional picture is about to get better reported, from Kampala and Kigali rather than from Nairobi desks.
TechTrends KE
