The Kenya-based fintech M-KOPA has raised an impressive $75 million growth equity round to continue scaling up its platform for making micro-loans to unbanked and underbanked people in Africa.
The funding round was led by Generation Investment Management and Broadscale Group with participation from CDC Group, LGT Lightrock, LocalGlobe’s Latitude Fund, and HEPCO Capital Management. This capital injection brings M-KOPA’s total equity funding to $190 million.
M-KOPA was founded in 2010 and calls itself a “connected asset financing platform”. What this means is it uses technology like digital micropayments and IoT (Internet-of-Things) connectivity to make financing more accessible. It began this process with solar power, but then has extended it to other products and services, including mobile devices, and appliances like TVs and refrigerators. It also offers consumer loans, healthcare, and more.
The company has served roughly 2 million Africans to date and expects to hit 3 million by the end of 2022.
Last year, the company hired Babajide Duroshola to lead its expansion into Nigeria. He previously ran Nigeria for the ride-hailing service SafeBoda (another East African company that expanded into Nigeria).
M-KOPA already operates in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, and Ghana. And it plans to roll out its service across the African continent.
“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,” said M-KOPA CEO and Co-founder Jesse Moore.
“Our innovative model means we have enabled financial empowerment for over two million people already through micro-payments, but there are still millions of people across the continent that are stuck with limited economic options. With this funding, we will expand to more markets across Africa and scale to over 10 million customers in the next few years.”
One of the lead investors cited M-KOPA as an innovator in African fintech.
“M-KOPA is not only an inspiring engine of empowerment, it was doing fintech and ‘buy now pay later’ before those were buzzwords,” said Andrew L. Shapiro
Founder & Partner, Broadscale Group.
“This is truly one of the best impact investments we've seen and we're honored to be co-investing with long-time friends and supporting the extraordinary leadership of the M-KOPA team.”