M-KOPA Joins Poa!, BasiGo as Kenyan Companies Raising Millions of Dollars in 2022

Digital financing firm M-KOPA has closed a $75 million round.

The drive 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. This capital injection brings M-KOPA’s total equity funding to $190M.

Today’s news also coincides with M-KOPA providing financing to two million customers. 

M-KOPA says that the funding will help it expand its turf to other nations, save for Kneya, Uganda, Nigeria and Uganda which it already served.

Furthermore, M-KOAP will also continue to expand its flexibale daily and weekly payments model to go beyond asset financing. This will be done through the scaling of its financial services and products, including health insurance, cash loans and merchant partnerships. The products have since proved popular among its customer base.

At the moment, M-KOPA has unlocked over $600 million in financing and enabled 2 million customers to access a diverse set of products including smartphones, solar lighting, solar-powered appliances and digital financial services such as cash loans and health insurance.

M-KOPA, which was launched back in 2011, has recorded nearly 2.5X growth of new customers in 2021 and is projected to reach 3 million customers by the end of 2022. 

“M-KOPA’s unique technology-enabled approach to providing essential consumer goods and financial services is an inspiring engine of empowerment perfectly aligned with our mission of Disruption for Good,” said Broadscale’s Managing Partner, Andrew Shapiro. “The company’s rapid customer growth demonstrates the massive unmet demand in this sector, and we look forward to working with M-KOPA as they continue to scale their reach and impact across Africa.”

African startups have been receiving a lot of funds from VCs in the recent past. In 2021 alone, these companies received more than $4 billion in funding, 2.5 times more than in 2020.

Just the other day, Kenya electric bus company BasiGo has announced a $4.3 million Seed funding round, led by Novastar Ventures with participation from several Silicon Valley investors including: Moxxie Ventures, Nimble Partners, Spring Ventures, Climate Capital, and Third Derivative.

Internet firm Poa also closed a $28 million round of funding. The drive was led by Africa50.

It would be interesting to see if this trend continues, and what additional services the firms will offer to their customers.