M-KOPA Raises Another USD 10 Mn to Expand Further in East Africa
M-KOPA, which sells solar home systems, has recently concluded a USD 10 Mn round led by CDC. The series details remain unreported. With this round, the Solar energy startup has USD 161.8 Mn under in its kitty.
M-KOPA which was established in 2011 in Nairobi and works on “pay-as-you-go” model for energy services for off-grid customers. It began its commercial sales 2012 after piloting. Soon they expanded to Uganda and in Tanzania in the following years. It currently operates in 5 countries. The off-grid solar energy provider has connected 600,000 homes already.
Founded in 1948, CDC is UK’s Development Finance Institution(DFI) and is wholly owned by the government. They have been continuously engaged with projects in Africa and South Asia to build businesses and increase employability. Their portfolio of investments is valued at over £4.8bn and includes 1,245 investee businesses.
Interestingly M-KOPA hit the headlines recently when it fired 18% of its staff to outsource work to a foreign company. It later turned out that the layoffs were done to curtail the rising costs of technology and the need to generate profits to give returns to investors.
