M-KOPA uses a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) financing model that lets customers build ownership of appliances via an initial deposit followed by flexible micro-payments. The company operates in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and Ghana and is known for a prominent solar product in Kenya and Uganda. M-KOPA is expanding its digital financial services and plans to extend its financial services offerings and product sets. Last year it secured over USD 250M in new debt and equity funding to grow its financial services to underbanked consumers across Sub-Saharan Africa. Most recently M-KOPA obtained a USD 51M loan from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to enable provision of affordable smartphones and enhance digital connectivity for underserved communities in Kenya. The company also intends to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Kenya and Uganda, leveraging its solar products as part of that effort. M-KOPA provides asset financing that lets underbanked customers buy productive assets such as smartphones and solar home systems and pay via digital micro-installments. It operates across Kenya, Uganda, Ghana and Nigeria and builds customer credit histories through repayments; default rates sit a little above 10%. The company sells products directly and cross-sells financial services (eg, loans and health insurance) via partnerships and an agent network of over 10,000 people. M-KOPA reports roughly 3 million customers today, has directly employed nearly 2,000 people, and has provided over $600M in cumulative credit historically (now exceeding $1B). It has sold more than a million solar home systems, helping avoid about 2 million tonnes of CO2, and uses sustainability-linked financing tied to impact goals. Future plans include extending its financial-services and product sets, narrowing the gender gap in ownership, piloting in South Africa, and testing electric mobility products such as electric motorcycles. M-KOPA began in 2011 as a solar-power PAYG provider and has expanded its model to finance smartphones, TVs, refrigerators, solar lighting and digital financial services such as cash loans and health insurance. The company serves underbanked customers across Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana, having pulled out of Tanzania. M-KOPA has surpassed 2 million customers and says it has unlocked over $600 million in financing for those users. Its model requires a modest deposit (example given: ~$30) followed by daily payments of roughly $0.30–$1, with an average monthly interest rate of about 3.1%. M-KOPA has scaled its field salesforce and staff — the active seller base grew from 2,500 pre-2020 to 10,000 in 2021 and the company added over 500 full-time positions across four markets in the last two years. The company plans to expand product offerings in Nigeria later this year and in Ghana in early 2023, launch in one new market this year and next, and scale its financial-services products and customer-relationship technology. M-Kopa began as a solar home systems provider and has evolved into a connected asset-financing platform selling a diversified range of devices including smartphones, solar home systems, and digital financial services such as cash loans. Its products are sold through a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) model requiring an initial deposit followed by daily instalments collected via mobile money. The company is positioned to become a leading African personal asset financing provider and operates in the East Africa region. British International Investment (then CDC Group) first made an equity investment in M-Kopa in 2016 when the product offering was primarily solar home systems. BII later committed additional equity in June 2021. The investment record lists the domicile as the United Kingdom and shows the investment status as active. M-KOPA has built an advanced pay-as-you-go platform that unlocks solar, information, technology and finance for millions of people. The company’s systems sit at the heart of the home, connecting lights, phone charging, radios, TVs and refrigerators and enabling customers to upgrade to additional appliances and financial services. Subscribers choose flexible daily payment plans that can be paid from any place with a mobile signal. M-KOPANET is M-KOPA’s patented telemetry and IoT platform that powers connected devices, while the M-KOPAIQ Analytics Suite analyses device performance, customer preferences and payment behaviour to drive operations and surface new service opportunities. Through its platform M-KOPA targets households moving beyond unreliable utilities toward owned distributed energy and digital services.

Total raised

$498M

Funding rounds

9

Latest round

Debt Financing

Latest activity

May 2024