M-Kopa raises $75m in equity funding and targets expansion
Kenyan Fintech platform providing financing and digital financial services to underbanked consumers across four markets in Africa, M-KOPA, has announced it secured $75M in a Growth Equity round to bring the startup’s total equity funding to $190M.
The round was led by Generation Investment Management and Broadscale Group, with participation from new investors including LocalGlobe’s Latitude Fund and HEPCO Capital Management. M-KOPA’s existing investors, CDC Group and LGT Lightrock also participated in the round.
Chad Larson, Jesse Moore and Nick Hughes launched M-KOPA in 2011. Since then, it has provided over $600m in financing to over 2 million customers. M-KOPA projects it will reach 3 million before the end of 2022. It says that new customers grew by 2.5 times in 2021.
Jesse Moore, M-Kopa CEO and co-founder, said, “We’re thrilled to partner with leading global investors with deep experience supporting growth-stage companies as we expand our platform to serve more of our customers’ needs…With this funding, we will expand to more markets across Africa and scale to over 10 million customers in the next few years.”
M-KOPA started out as a pay-as-you-go solar power provider to off-grid homes. Having delved into other services in 2019, the startup now offers customers instant access to everyday products while building ownership over time through micro-payments.
Dave Easton, partner in Generation Investment Management’s growth equity team, which participated in the funding round spoke on the innovative offering of the startup.
“We were early supporters of M-Kopa and continue to be impressed by the continued innovation of its product offerings and ability to accelerate at a significant scale. We are pleased to continue supporting M-Kopa as it scales further,” said Dave.
Mayur Patel, M-Kopa’s chief commercial officer, said that the startup has a chance to boost its offering by better integrating its loans with customers earning and spending cycles.
“There is a massive opportunity in front of us to make everyday essentials more accessible by better matching fractional payment terms with customers’ daily or weekly earning and spending cycles,” Mayur said.
M-KOPA plans to expand into additional countries, adding to its presence in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana. The startup also plans to go beyond asset financing to boost its offering of financial services products such as health insurance, cash loans and buy-now-pay-later partnerships with merchants.