---
title: 'M-KOPA — company profile'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/companies/m-kopa'
type: 'company'
updated: '2026-07-02'
---

# M-KOPA

> An African fintech that finances smartphones and essentials for everyday earners through small daily micro-payments over mobile money.

- **Website:** https://www.m-kopa.com
- **Type:** Private (Growth stage)
- **Headquarters:** London, UK (registered parent); operational roots in Nairobi, Kenya
- **Founded:** 2010
- **Founders:** Jesse Moore, Nick Hughes
- **Total raised:** $250M+ (equity + debt, 2023 round; more across earlier rounds)
- **Latest round:** $250M+ debt & equity · led by Standard Bank · May 2023
- **Investors:** Standard Bank, International Finance Corporation (IFC), British International Investment, Lightrock, Generation Investment Management, Sumitomo Corporation
- **Business model:** B2C embedded consumer finance / asset financing
- **Industries:** Payments
- **Open roles:** 75
- **Profile:** https://feeny.ai/companies/m-kopa

## What they do

M-KOPA is an African fintech that finances smartphones and other essentials for cash-based everyday earners through a small deposit plus daily or weekly micro-payments over mobile money. Reliable repayment builds a credit history that unlocks digital loans, health insurance, device protection, and data bundles on the same instalment model.

## Overview

**The phone is the foothold, the credit history is the point**

M-KOPA sells smartphones to people the banking system was built to ignore. A small deposit, then daily or weekly micro-payments over mobile money, and an everyday earner in Nairobi or Lagos walks home with a phone they could never have bought outright. The phone is only the wedge. Every on-time payment builds a credit record M-KOPA owns, and that record unlocks the real business: digital loans, hospital cover, device insurance, data bundles, all sold back on the same daily-instalment rhythm.

Founded in 2010 by Jesse Moore and Nick Hughes on a bet that mobile micropayments plus GSM connectivity could reach the unbanked, M-KOPA now runs across Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa. It has put more than $2 billion of credit into the hands of over 7 million customers, and in 2024 it turned its first annual profit on $416 million of revenue. The catch it lives with: lending daily-repayment credit to cash earners with no collateral is exactly as hard as it sounds, and the company's answer is to own the whole stack, from the phone to the payment engine to the 35,000-strong sales force.

## What They Do

**Embedded finance that turns a smartphone into a bank**

M-KOPA builds one thing well: a way to finance essentials for people who earn daily and can't front a lump sum. It combines its own software, hardware, and distribution so a customer can start with an ID and a deposit, take the phone home instantly, and pay it off in tiny amounts that match how money actually arrives in their week.

Once the phone is paid down, the same account becomes the gateway to loans, insurance, and connectivity. M-KOPA calls the result the Smart Money Platform, and it processes over a million payments a day off one of the largest proprietary tech and data stacks on the continent.

## Problems

**No salary, no collateral, no credit file, no problem**

Roughly half a billion African adults are not yet online, and the GSMA reckons an entry-level smartphone can cost up to 95% of a low-income earner's monthly wage. That single number is the wall M-KOPA is built to climb: people who could earn more with a connected device simply can't save the cash to buy one, and no lender will touch them because they have no formal income, no collateral, and no credit history.

M-KOPA's model attacks all of that at once. It asks for no proof of income and no guarantor, replaces the upfront price with daily instalments, and uses the repayment behaviour itself to build the credit file traditional finance demanded up front.

### Problems addressed

- Smartphones cost up to 95% of a low-income earner's monthly wage, blocking digital access
- Cash-based earners have no formal income, collateral, or credit history to qualify for financing
- Roughly half a billion African adults are still offline
- The underbanked are locked out of affordable loans, insurance, and connectivity

## Who It's For

**Built for the everyday earner the banks skip**

M-KOPA aims squarely at what it calls Every Day Earners: the traders, drivers, farmers, and small entrepreneurs who keep African economies running but get paid in cash, irregularly, and outside any payroll. Many are buying their first-ever smartphone through M-KOPA, and a large share are women stepping into the digital economy for the first time.

In Ghana, M-KOPA found 36% of customers said their M-KOPA phone was their first phone, and 67% got health insurance for the first time through the bundled Turaco cover. That is the persona in a sentence: someone gaining access, not upgrading it.

### Ideal customer profiles

- **Every Day Earner** — Can't afford a smartphone upfront; No collateral or salary to secure credit; Excluded from formal financial services
- **First-time smartphone / internet user** — Priced out of the digital economy; No path to build a credit record
- **Underserved women** — Extra barriers to entering the digital economy; No prior access to formal health insurance

## Products

**Start with a phone, graduate to a financial account**

The product ladder is the strategy. Everyone enters through a financed smartphone, M-KOPA's own X-Series and branded devices alongside Samsung models, sold on a deposit-plus-daily-instalment plan. Pay reliably for a few months and the account opens up.

From there customers can draw digital loans, add hospital cover through the Turaco partnership, insure the device, and buy affordable data. M-KOPA has also pushed into mobility, financing thousands of electric motorbikes for riders in Kenya. Each product rides the same repayment rails, so the more a customer uses, the deeper the relationship and the richer M-KOPA's data gets.

## Business Model

**Sell the device, earn on the credit relationship**

M-KOPA makes money by financing assets and services, not by selling gadgets at retail. A customer's daily micro-instalments cover the device over time and carry the financing margin, and the credit history those payments create is what lets M-KOPA cross-sell higher-margin loans, insurance, and data on the same account.

It is a vertically integrated play: M-KOPA owns the phones (assembled locally, over a million made in-region), the payment engine, and a direct sales force of more than 35,000 agents. That control is expensive to build but it is also the moat, and in 2024 it finally tipped the company into profit.

## Competition

**Owning the whole stack is the edge and the burden**

M-KOPA competes with pay-as-you-go asset financiers, telco device-financing schemes, and the growing field of African digital lenders, but few rivals run the full chain from locally assembled hardware to a proprietary payment and credit engine to a 35,000-agent distribution network. That integration is its clearest advantage: it controls the customer relationship end to end and turns repayment data into an underwriting asset competitors don't have.

The flip side is that owning everything is capital-heavy and operationally brutal, which is why the story for years was growth without profit. Reaching profitability in 2024 is the argument that the model actually holds together at scale.

### Their edge

- **Full-stack control** — Owns the phone (locally assembled), the payment and credit engine, and a 35,000-agent sales force, so it controls the customer end to end.
- **Data-driven underwriting** — Turns each customer's daily repayment record into a proprietary credit file that lets it lend to people banks reject.
- **Instalments that fit cash earners** — Daily and weekly micro-payments over mobile money match irregular, cash-based incomes rather than assuming a monthly salary.

### Where they're betting

- Cross-selling higher-margin loans, insurance, and data on the credit account
- Geographic expansion across Sub-Saharan Africa
- E-mobility financing
- Local smartphone assembly and manufacturing

## Proof

**The numbers M-KOPA puts on the table**

The traction is real and it is big. Over 7 million customers across five markets, more than $2 billion in credit unlocked, over a million payments processed daily, and 1.7 million people brought online for the first time.

Outsiders keep validating it too: the Financial Times has ranked M-KOPA among Africa's fastest-growing companies for five straight years, TIME named it to its 100 most influential companies of 2024, and CNBC listed it among the world's top fintechs in 2025. The 2024 turn to profit on $416 million of revenue is the proof point that matters most.

## What People Say

**Loved for access, dogged by the share-scheme fight**

Customers who benefit talk about access they never had: a first phone, first health cover, cash to cover a hospital stay. Employees rate the place well, around 4.0 on Glassdoor with most saying they would recommend it, praising the mission, growth opportunities, and benefits. The recurring customer gripe is cost, financed phones end up pricier than paying cash, plus occasional delays unlocking a device after final payment.

The loudest criticism is not about the product at all. A former Kenyan employee's lawsuit alleges the company's Growth Share scheme favoured white staff and investors over African employees, a claim M-KOPA calls baseless and says reflects seniority, not race. The dispute is public and unresolved, and it sits awkwardly against a company whose whole pitch is inclusion.

## Funding

**$250M in debt and equity, and finally in the black**

M-KOPA's biggest raise landed in May 2023: over $250 million, split between more than $200 million of debt and roughly $55 million of equity, led by Standard Bank. The debt-heavy shape is telling, because a lender needs balance-sheet firepower to fund millions of daily-instalment loans.

The backer list reads like a who's-who of impact and development capital: Standard Bank, the IFC, British International Investment, Lightrock, Generation Investment Management, and Sumitomo Corporation, which put in $36.5 million of the equity. What changed the narrative was 2024, when M-KOPA reported its first-ever annual profit and cut its reliance on the next cheque.

## Team & Culture

**A 3,000-strong core behind a 35,000-agent frontline**

M-KOPA runs on two very different workforces: a roughly 3,000-person core team across six offices, and a direct sales army of more than 35,000 agents who sell face to face across five African markets. The culture the company sells to recruits is built on three values, Progress, Excellence, and Humility, and a promise to serve the everyday earner without ego.

Hiring skews heavily toward field sales, retail operations, and customer care in Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, and Uganda, with a smaller but growing engineering and fintech function out of London. Roles run on-site for the frontline and hybrid or remote for office teams, and benefits include health cover, learning budgets, and flexible working.

## Security & Legal

**A UK holding company running an African lender**

Despite its Kenyan roots and Nairobi operations, M-KOPA is legally a British group. The registered parent is M-KOPA Holdings Limited, incorporated in England and Wales under company number 10891868, with a UK head office at the Gridiron Building, 1 Pancras Square, London. Its African entities, including M-KOPA Ghana Ltd, act as independent data controllers in their own markets.

Because it lends to and profiles millions of customers, data handling is core: M-KOPA collects identity, payment, and credit-behaviour data to underwrite loans and states it processes personal data only for the purposes it discloses. Its privacy program runs on standard consent and data-subject rights under applicable local laws.

## Company details

- **Mission:** To make financing for everyday essentials accessible to everyone, or as the company puts it, to finance progress for the everyday earners who are the backbone of Africa's economies.
- **Products:** Smartphone Financing, Digital Loans, Health Cover, Device Protection, Affordable Data, Mobility / E-Motorbikes
- **Customer segments:** Underbanked consumers, Cash-based everyday earners, Small entrepreneurs and traders, First-time smartphone owners, Women entering the digital economy, Gig / motorbike riders
- **Buyers / users:** Every Day Earners (cash-based African workers without formal salary or collateral), First-time smartphone and internet users, Underserved women in peri-urban and rural areas
- **Competitors:** Pay-as-you-go asset financiers, Telco device-financing schemes, African digital lenders and BNPL players
- **What sets them apart:** Vertically integrated: owns hardware, payment engine, and distribution end to end; Uses repayment behaviour to underwrite the previously uncreditworthy; No collateral, guarantor, or proof of income required to start; One of the largest direct sales forces on the continent (35,000+ agents); Daily/weekly micro-instalments matched to how customers actually earn
- **Tech stack:** Mobile money (e.g. M-Pesa), GSM connectivity, Proprietary payment + credit-data platform, Locally assembled Android smartphones
- **Integrations:** Turaco (health insurance), M-Pesa / mobile money, Samsung (devices), Bolt (e-mobility), Ashby (recruiting)

## Open roles (75)

- [Sales Executive - ⁠Lagos 3](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/541512c8-10cd-4b81-b64b-b6041fa26764) — Lagos, Nigeria
- [Legal & Compliance Manager – West Africa](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/eb4fe84c-d717-41e8-a6b3-931286daa3d5) — Ghana
- [Warehouse Intern](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/fb9b1488-660c-4f39-9ae0-3d9085cfeb5d) — Ghana
- [Head of Financial Services & Regulatory Affairs West Africa](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/4e64168d-472c-4dea-a055-fed3c9980e4c) — Nigeria
- [Safeguarding & GBV Lead](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/e3657be5-20b3-489b-a9be-0752356400c5) — Lagos, Nigeria
- [Retail Sales Agent- Kwa-Zulu Natal](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/c6e973bc-0b52-42c8-9887-b5fb356e878e) — Durban, South Africa
- [Software Engineering Team Lead](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/01f7cf54-97a1-4f20-aa50-07a54c5b695f) — London, United Kingdom
- [Retail Sales Agent - Northern Cape](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/f371b553-bc1e-4914-ba31-0600d2281752) — Northern Cape, South Africa
- [Retail Team Lead - Free State](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/e1453f67-6979-4ce6-96cf-c7d4833c70ea) — Free State, South Africa
- [Sales Executive - Mampong](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/cc1ea2d3-6c6f-4fa4-9a47-f79d1a2fa170) — Ghana
- [Customer Care Trainer  - Accra](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/384ed15c-a244-478f-b62b-535658c2b7b1) — Ghana
- [Head of Operations - Customer Care/Collections](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/3981f83f-3c2c-44ea-af44-a99674f7cdf1) — Accra, Ghana
- [Regional Manager - Sales](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/5bb49b53-e4a3-4b48-9d91-c9be2ff9d22b) — Sunyani, Ghana
- [Outbound Telesales Representative](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/cf72e5dc-ad73-4369-aa5d-bb59eba914b3) — Kampala, Uganda
- [Sales Representative - Soshanguve](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/a73ad192-8ba6-4151-b2c4-3eed428ecadc) — Pretoria, South Africa
- [Customer Care Trainer](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/fbf42a2d-e59c-4dc6-895f-13a978328f05) — Lagos, Nigeria
- [Sales Executive - Sebrepor](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/56be07d3-2235-4a2a-8b6e-45c11d428b50) — Ghana
- [Sales Executive - ⁠Olorunsogo](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/939bc498-7712-4a06-9b8b-3b2487b8cd29) — Oyo, Nigeria
- [Lead AI Engineer - Financial Inclusion](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/39e72e4d-0d57-4f51-a4e3-d82fc90a0b15) — Nairobi, Kenya
- [Lead Protection Officer](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/33adda8c-003f-43b0-89a4-6b6c1cc590af) — Lagos, Nigeria
- [Sales Executive - ⁠Amuloko](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/2d479bc4-c6f9-4ee0-ae52-57c17cd1c459) — Oyo, Nigeria
- [Sales Trainer (KwaZulu Natal)](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/e043b802-8b45-48da-abc8-3c08713fdd1a) — Durban, South Africa
- [Lead AI Engineer - Financial Inclusion](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/0c4e09d3-eb8b-4a36-956a-2da9cd0f69a5) — London, United Kingdom
- [Sales Executive - ⁠Oluyole](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/35334255-618f-4ae8-9fb6-7908088cfe28) — Oyo, Nigeria
- [Retail Sales Agents - Limpopo](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/37146de9-789b-4470-b589-832f34da1f07) — Limpopo, South Africa
- [Retail Team Lead (Gauteng)](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/db26651b-4cf3-4933-b026-63f3e0f0a498) — Gauteng, South Africa
- [Regional Manager - Sales](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/52a699e6-2b56-4f3f-874e-4a8d5c53d06d) — Accra, Ghana
- [Retail Training and Quality Assurance Lead (Western Cape)](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/774db23a-7698-4ce3-b725-5a76eded462a) — Western Cape, South Africa
- [Retail Sales Agent - Western Cape](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/619bde8c-2087-4de9-89be-aa6917fb01bb) — Western Cape, South Africa
- [Field Marketing Officer](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/fb8fee4b-dfe3-4078-aadf-d183c42be9a3) — Nairobi, Kenya
- [Retail Training and Quality Assurance Lead (Gauteng)](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/bb03b5c3-adcd-4fe8-8704-8bca895b2ac2) — Gauteng, South Africa
- [Sales Representative - Guateng North - Daveyton](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/9cb190bb-d01f-4aef-89e4-bd791f3042c8) — Gauteng, South Africa
- [Senior Lead – HR Shared Services & Benefits](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/2e5ac8b8-95e3-4daa-be20-5f3c21ac1906) — Kenya
- [Sales Represenative - Makhado](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/5fa269ea-5ced-4071-9d8d-aef893d0099d) — Limpopo, South Africa
- [Telesales Representative - Outbound](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/02d78c32-8005-420f-a8ba-0bcd30da6baf) — Lagos, Nigeria
- [Retail Sales Agent- Gauteng](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/1b0a1e98-3368-4b86-b1ac-b2443e158b08) — Gauteng, South Africa
- [Sales Executive - Jasikan](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/771618eb-42c3-4f76-a5c3-c2144f2213c4) — Ghana
- [Sales Executive - ⁠Benin 3](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/6d7f1a78-37fd-4d25-a88e-0bbd229d63bc) — Benin
- [Retail Audit Lead (Western Cape)](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/d1296db4-f28c-4a24-a35d-4b5459942ecb) — Western Cape, South Africa
- [Retail Audit Lead (Limpopo)](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/72700e85-d588-485c-8a8c-5da76bedd934) — Limpopo, South Africa
- [Retail Sales Agent - Eastern Cape](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/a4e84361-3aa1-49ba-9627-4fa11d7934c6) — Eastern Cape, South Africa
- [Retail Sales Agent- Mpumalanga](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/7a02c63a-389c-4334-9504-922be0b9ca9d) — Mpumalanga, South Africa
- [Safeguarding Lead](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/5965b366-2c57-4c23-8391-96536a3c6c55) — Uganda
- [Retail Team Lead (Kwa-Zulu Natal)](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/390ad6ad-458a-446a-a22b-337e30dc59ec) — Durban, South Africa
- [Retail Team Lead (Western Cape)](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/ec5ce88e-afd8-4c75-9d57-b2e2e6ddc128) — Western Cape, South Africa
- [Software Engineering Team Lead](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/3b8605f6-1b7e-45bf-9c93-9401f4205109) — Nairobi, Kenya
- [Sales Trainer (Mpumalanga)](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/b6d2ee23-f6f1-4825-8e60-a3bf0118ba2f) — Mpumalanga, South Africa
- [Sales Representative (North West)](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/9cfc0ebc-2510-41ce-bd54-98ce53b050f4) — North West, South Africa
- [Telesales Representative – Inbound](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/1fc8ee60-2889-4bef-aa00-03353b250548) — Lagos, Nigeria
- [Head of Financial Services & Regulatory Affairs West Africa](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/m-kopa/7f1bf941-dfbc-41f7-9b81-092004c339ca) — Nigeria

_…and 25 more at https://feeny.ai/companies/m-kopa/jobs_

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_Source: https://feeny.ai/companies/m-kopa · profile updated 2026-07-02_