M-kopa is Utilizing Energy for Economic Inclusion in East AFrica
M-Kopa is a Kenyan solar energy and fintech company headquartered in Nairobi, it was founded by Nick Huges, Chad Larson and Jesse Moore in 2011.
The company has pioneered and built one of the world’s most advanced Pay-As-You-Go platforms to upgrade millions of lives in East Africa, specifically Kenya and Uganda.
M-Kopa was launched commercially in 2012, As of March 2019, over 700,000 homes and businesses across are being empowered by M-Kopa’s connected technology and consumer finance.
According to Financial Times, Moore and Huges with banker and microfinance expert Chad Larson in 2010 co-founded the startup in Nairobi that became M-Kopa the following year. The initial goal was to sell 1000 units a week within three years.
However, that milestone was reached within 12 months and now the 1200 strong sales team, who work on commission and incentives are selling up to 4000 units per week.
By 2015, M-Kopa had powered 150000 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.
M-Kopa offers pay-as-you-go solar home systems, with payments collected in small amounts using mobile money or digital payments. Instead of collateral, M-Kopa uses embedded mobile technology to remotely control the system. If payments are late, then the system can be disabled until the customer catches up.
The company claims that energy is a vital step towards economic inclusion. It also says that families are saving an average of US$183 annually by replacing kerosene, candles and batteries.
With the growing range of upgrade products, M-Kopa maintains that its flexible financing model, underpinned by IOT systems and telemetry, is a scalable and efficient way for low-income households to finance life-changing services and products.
Co-Founder, Jesse Moore talks about a 50c daily spend on kerosene is being repurposed to make homes healthier, wealthier and more connected.
