Spiro, a electric motorbike manufacturer and clean energy provider in Africa has appointed Kaushik Burman as Co-CEO starting effective on the 14th of August 2023, serving alongside Jules Samain (Board Member and Co-CEO) to accelerate the transition of EVs across the African continent.
Teh appointement is also expected to help the firm to become a leading integrated advanced technology platform, offering a differentiated value proposition to its customers, by combining digital, entertainment and energy as service.
Kaushik worked as GM (Gogoro Inc) & MD at Gogoro India, a NASDAQ listed electric mobility & battery swapping infrastructure company, which is world’s largest electric scooter and battery swapping company and led its global expansion in Indonesia (Gojek), Philippines (Globe / Ayala JV), Korea (Bike Bank) and built Gogoro in India.
Prior to joining Gogoro, he worked at Shell plc across Europe and Asia, leading diverse teams in sales, marketing and customer operations. At Shell, he was a founding team member of DLNG, (Liquified Natural Gas for B2B transport fuel), developed the Go-To-Market strategy & execution of DLNG and was the GM of Shell Fleet Solutions (Singapore & Indonesia).
Kaushik holds an INSEAD Full-time MBA (2011) and also completed advanced technology and policy program from Harvard Kennedy School. He is a trained Mechanical engineer from Univ College of Engineering (OU, Hyderabad) with Distinction, and, has an MBA from FMS Delhi.
“Spiro has nearly 10000 motorcycles today and more than two million swaps in only 13 months of operations, created hundreds of jobs, and our services have positively impacted thousands of customers in Benin, Togo, and Rwanda. I welcome Kaushik to the team and we join hands together in taking SPIRO through its next phase of growth to hyperscale in Africa as well as globally,’’ said Board Member and Co-CEO Jules Samain.
Spiro aims to address the climate emergency, improve public health, and stimulate economic growth in the region by replacing fossil fuel-based vehicles with clean, efficient, and affordable electric alternatives. The firm is present in Benin, Togo, Rwanda, and Uganda and Kenya.