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M-Kopa (M for mobile, ''kopa'' is Swahili for borrow, stylized as M-KOPA)"Pay-as-you-go solar power takes off in Africa"
Anmar Frangoul, CNBC, 25 February 2015
is a UK-headquartered emerging market fintech platform that provides affordable smartphones and digital financial services. M-Kopa was launched commercially in 2012 and is headquartered in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
. The company is currently operating in Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and South Africa. M-KOPA uses a financing model based on daily repayments, providing affordable smartphones integrated with financial services that fit with the cash flow of underseved individuals who earn their income on a daily basis.


History

In 2010, Moore and Hughes, with banker Chad Larson founded the start-up in Nairobi that became M-Kopa the following year. Hughes previously set up and ran
M-Pesa M-PESA (M for mobile, ''PESA'' is Swahili language, Swahili for money) is a mobile banking, mobile phone-based money transfer service, payments and Micro-finance, micro-financing service, launched in 2007 by Vodafone and Safaricom, the largest ...
at
Vodafone Vodafone Group Public Limited Company () is a British Multinational company, multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates Service (economic ...
, a mobile phone-based money transfer, financing and microfinancing service, where Moore also worked whilst completing his MBA. Larson and Moore were fellow MBA students at
Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
. In 2011,  M-Kopa raised money with incubation by Signal Point Partners."Banking on the Poor"
Stanford Social Innovation Review, Dennis Price, 2016
Backing investors have included
Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is an English business magnate who co-founded the Virgin Group in 1970, and controlled 5 companies remaining of once more than 400. Branson expressed his desire to become an entrepreneu ...
, Generation Investment Management, Blue Haven Initiative and LGT Venture Philanthropy, an investment vehicle of the
Princely Family of Liechtenstein The House of Liechtenstein (), from which the principality takes its name, is the family which reigns by hereditary right over the principality of Liechtenstein. Only dynastic members of the family are eligible to inherit the throne. The dynasty ...
. M-Kopa was launched commercially in late 2012. By 2015, it said it had powered 150,000 households in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, with around 10,000 mobile payments made by users on its cloud platform, M-Kopanet, made on a daily basis. It had over $40 million of revenue by 2015. In 2015, M-Kopa estimated that 80 percent of its customers lived on less than $2 a day. In February 2015, M-Kopa announced a plan to blacklist defaulters on its loans with
credit bureau A credit bureau is a data collection agency that gathers account information from various creditors and provides that information to a consumer reporting agency in the United States, a credit reference agency in the United Kingdom, a credit report ...
s. It had connected over 300,000 homes in East Africa to Solar power, as of early January 2016 In 2016, M-Kopa sold 30,000 solar TVs in Kenya, looking to add internet access. By December 2016, the company had sold around 400,000 systems in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda since its launch in 2011, under CEO Jesse Moore."Africa Finds Power Off the Grid"
MIT Technology Review, Jonathan W. Rosen, 2 December 2016
As of 2016, there were plans to begin manufacturing all the products in Kenya."Solar-powered televisions brighten homes in rural Kenya"
1 August 2016, ''Reuters''
By January 2018, the company had wired at least 500,000 homes, and sold about 90,000 solar rechargeable televisions."Outdated policies, high taxes discourage uptake of solar"
Abel Muhatia, 17 January, 20178, The Star
In 2018, it was reported that M-Kopa was going to acquire an additional 500,000 photovoltaic solar panels, under chairman Mugo Kibati, in an agreement with Solinc East Africa."M-kopa strikes deal for 500,000 photovoltaic solar panels"
Patrick Alushula, 16 January 2018
In February 2018, M-Kopa received $10 million in funding from FinDev Canada in a new funding round led by
CDC The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the national public health agency of the United States. It is a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and is headquartered in Atlanta, ...
, and including existing shareholders LGT Venture Philanthropy and Generation Investment Management. In July 2021, M-Kopa announced its expansion to Nigeria."M-KOPA expands to Nigeria"
12 July 2021, ''SautiTech''
In 2024, the company had extended over $1.5 billion in credit to more than 5 million customers and stated that it employs over 3,000 staff members and 30,000 sales agents across its African markets.


Business model and products

M-KOPA utilises payments data and proprietary AI-driven analytics to create a credit record for each customer to form long-term financial relationships that include digital loans, affordable digital subscriptions and insurance. Customers pay a deposit of KSh.  (approx US$35), and then pay (approx US$0.50) a day for a period of one year, to own the smartphone device. Daily payments are made through
M-Pesa M-PESA (M for mobile, ''PESA'' is Swahili language, Swahili for money) is a mobile banking, mobile phone-based money transfer service, payments and Micro-finance, micro-financing service, launched in 2007 by Vodafone and Safaricom, the largest ...
, a mobile phone based money system, at about 45 cents a day. This way, in addition to getting their device, customers also slowly off-set the cost of the device. The company also provides an upgrade products and services that include; smartphones and digital financial services. The company also has a dedicated and ring-fenced R&D unit, M-Kopa Labs, which deploys research grants to test new technology and extensions to the M-Kopa platform M-Kopa is supported by a number of partners. Mobile network operators—like Safaricom—are partnering with M-Kopa to support mobile money and value-added services.  Manufacturers and brands are partnering to provide a platform for market entry, finance and last mile access. Payments companies like Mastercard and challenger banks see the disruptive power of the platform on traditional clicks and mortar banking.


Awards

M-Kopa has received recognition from various institutions. It won the Bloomberg New Energy Finance Award 2014 as well as two awards from the ''
Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...
'' for Technology in Sustainable Finance and Excellence in sustainable finance, both in 2013. In 2015, M-Kopa was recognized by Fortune Magazine as one of the Top 50 Companies Changing the World and won the Zayed Future Energy Award 2015, In February 2016, it was recognised as the Best Mobile Innovation for Emerging Markets at the Global Mobile Awards. M-Kopa was named on MIT Technology Review's 2017 list of 50 Smartest Companies in June 2017. In March 2016, it emerged boldest at the Financial Times Arcelor Mittal – Boldness in Business Awards in the developing markets category. Fast Company listed M-Kopa in the 2018 Edition of the World's Most Innovative Companies and number four out of 10 in Africa. The company was also named among the global Cleantech 100 companies in 2019. In addition, M-Kopa was listed in the Financial Times “Africa’s Fastest Growing Companies” rankings three years in a row in 2022, 2023, and 2024. The company was also included in the TIME100 Most Influential Companies list in 2023 and 2024.


References


External links

*{{Official website, www.m-kopa.com Applications of photovoltaics Solar-powered devices Energy companies of Kenya Companies based in Nairobi Energy companies established in 2011 Solar energy companies Solar power in Kenya Kenyan brands Kenyan companies established in 2011