M-KOPA Raises $250 Million to Improve Financial Inclusion in Africa

M-KOPA has raised $250 million to expand its financial services offering across sub-Saharan Africa.

The Kenya-based company will use the new debt and equity funding to continue to grow and to improve financial and digital inclusion for underbanked consumers in the region, M-KOPA said in a Monday (May 15) post on LinkedIn.

M-KOPA did not immediately reply to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

The company is currently active in four countries — Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana — and offers connected financing and digital financial services to underbanked consumers.

M-KOPA combines digital micropayments with Internet of Things (IoT) technology to deliver financing to more people. Customers are empowered to take ownership of their assets and build up their credit over time using a flexible payment model.

Its latest funding comes as M-KOPA has surpassed 3 million cumulative customers and over $1 billion of credit issued to the underbanked, M-KOPA Co-founder and CEO Jesse Moore said in a Monday post on LinkedIn.

“Just last month, we welcomed our 3 millionth customer, Halimatu Sadia Sulemana from Ghana, who like many others uses her M-KOPA-financed smartphone to boost her food trading business and increase her income,” Moore said in the post.

Moore added that while it took M-KOPA eight years to get its first 1 million customers, it took only 1.5 years to get its second million and just over a year to get its third million.

“This is not the easiest year to scale in our operating markets, with high inflation levels and currency devaluation making things challenging for our customers and sales representatives,” Moore said in the post. “But the team at M-KOPA remain committed and are persevering despite the headwinds.”

Moore told TechCrunch in an article posted Monday that electric mobility is a category the company plans to test out.

“There’s a huge demand for life-enhancing products like smartphones and solar systems, which are difficult to afford, but we’ve made them affordable and accessible to our customers,” Moore said, per the report. “Our next category in R&D right now is electric motorcycles. We’re very excited about electric mobility, and we’re sure that in the next couple of decades, there will be a big switch in ownership where electric motorbikes will scale when there’s financing to go with them.”

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