- After reaching 1 million customers in 2020, M-KOPA has accelerated to add 9 million more, now adding 10,000 new customers daily
M-KOPA, the pan-African fintech, has reached 10 million customers across its 5 African markets.
From its first solar sale in 2012, reaching 1 million customers took 8 years. Since its entry into smartphone financing in 2020, M-KOPA has added 9 million more in just 6 years, a marked acceleration in customer growth.
The milestone reflects growing demand for M-KOPA’s “More than a Phone” platform, which combines smartphone financing with embedded insurance, credit and device protection at the point of purchase.
M-KOPA was built for what it calls “Every Day Earners”: the traders, boda riders, tailors and shopkeepers who generate income daily but remain invisible to conventional financial services. Where traditional banks saw only risk, M-KOPA saw an opportunity to provide an economically active population with innovative products and services designed around daily livelihoods. 9 in 10 independently surveyed M-KOPA customers say that M-KOPA products have improved their lives.
“Every Day Earners have always been creditworthy. What they needed was credit built around how they really make a living, not a payslip. Informal has never meant unviable. 10 million customers on, that’s no longer a belief. It’s proven,” said Jesse Moore, co-founder and CEO of M-KOPA.
The addressable opportunity remains vast. Nearly 9 in 10 workers in sub-Saharan Africa earn their living in the informal economy. By 2040, Africa is projected to have among the largest populations of non-salaried, economically active adults in the world, the core market M-KOPA is built to serve.
In Kenya, the company opened the continent’s largest smartphone assembly factory in 2023, which employs over 400 people, has achieved global ISO-certification, and has produced over 3.3 million devices to date.
Growth beyond East Africa has accelerated too: Nigeria became the fastest market in M-KOPA’s history to surpass 1 million customers. The company’s reach is carried by Africa’s largest direct sales distribution network, with more than 40,000 agents across five countries.
The company’s revenue has grown at an average annual rate of 50% per year since 2020. That performance has been recognised externally, as M-KOPA has been named to the Financial Times’ Africa’s Fastest Growing Companies list for five consecutive years, and to CNBC’s World’s Top Fintech Companies for the second consecutive year.
“Every Day Earners are why we do this. From our very first customer to this year’s ten millionth, this is proof that a model built for Africa’s Every Day Earners doesn’t just work, it scales and endures. It’s a proud moment for our team, and we’re already looking to the next 10 million” said M-KOPA CFO Faraimose Kutadzaushe.
