M-KOPA raises $250m to scale consumer fintech across Africa

M-KOPA, a fintech platform, has announced that it successfully secured $250 million in new debt and equity funding to expand its financial services offering to underbanked consumers across Sub-Saharan Africa.

This marks one of the largest combined debt and equity raises in the African tech sector, enabling M-KOPA to continue its rapid growth, the company said.

With this new funding, the business aims to grow its smartphone services, expand its model to new markets and extend its financed product set. In line with M-KOPA and its partners’ longstanding commitment to creating a positive impact, debt financing is structured to support sustainability-linked goals with pricing that is linked to the achievement of environmental and social targets.

Lendable, an investment platform was appointed as the Borrowing Base and Sustainability Verification Agent for the debt transaction. M-KOPA will also use the financing to drive women’s financial inclusion and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in its East African markets by increasing smartphone ownership among women and further developing its electric mobility solutions offering, respectively.

Speaking on the round, Jesse Moore, M-KOPA CEO and Co-founder said, “At M-KOPA, we are working hard to create a positive environmental and social impact by systematically addressing the barriers to digital financial services. We have already unlocked $1bn in cumulative credit to over 3 million customers, and are proud of the thousands of local jobs we’ve created during tough economic times. As we continue to scale we remain committed to building a sustainable business and closing economic and digital gender gaps. We are delighted to have the support of new and existing investors who share our vision and mission”.

Over $200 million in sustainability-linked debt financing was led and arranged by Standard Bank Group, Africa’s largest bank, and long-term strategic partner to M-KOPA. Other participating lenders include The International Finance Corporation (IFC), funds managed by Lion’s Head Global Partners, FMO: Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank, British International Investment, Mirova SunFunder, and Nithio.

A further $55 million in equity investment was backed by existing strategic investor Sumitomo Corporation, which is contributing $36.5n million to the total raise and will engage closely with M-KOPA on new growth markets and products. Blue Haven Initiative, Lightrock, Broadscale Group, and Latitude, the sister fund to Local Globe, also participated in the transaction.

M-KOPA’s operations started in East Africa and successfully expanded to Nigeria in 2021 and, more recently, Ghana. From 2020 to 2022, M-KOPA recorded a compound annual growth rate of 85 percent in new customer acquisition and was recently recognised as one of Africa’s Fastest-Growing Top 100 companies by the Financial Times for two consecutive years, in 2022 and 2023. Today’s news coincides with the business reaching over 3 million customers and providing over $1 billion in cumulative credit for underbanked customers in Africa. The company continues to scale rapidly and is on track to acquire an additional million customers over the course of 2023.

“As a strategic investor, we are very excited to accelerate business growth through collaborative efforts in business development. By leveraging each expertise and resource, we believe this partnership will have a positive impact on both the financial and telecommunications sectors, ultimately enriching the lives of people across the continent,” said Masaki Nakajima, Senior Managing Executive Officer, General Manager, Media & Digital Business Unit at Sumitomo Corporation.