M-KOPA, the pan-African fintech and asset-financing pioneer, has officially announced that its customer base has reached the 10 million mark, representing a significant acceleration in the company’s growth trajectory across Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa. This achievement comes just six years after the company surpassed its first million-customer milestone, signaling a decade of rapid evolution from a solar-power provider to a diversified financial services giant. According to a company statement released on Wednesday, M-KOPA is currently onboarding approximately 10,000 new customers every day, a rate of growth that underscores the surging demand for credit products among Africa’s "everyday earners" who have historically been excluded from traditional banking systems.

The 10-million-customer milestone is the latest in a series of record-breaking financial and operational benchmarks for the Nairobi-headquartered firm. In late 2025, M-KOPA reported its first-ever annual profit, a landmark moment for a venture-backed startup in the African tech ecosystem. This profitability was driven by a 66% year-on-year surge in revenue, reflecting the successful scaling of its lending operations. By November 2025, the company’s Kenyan subsidiary alone had facilitated over $1.6 billion in cumulative credit, highlighting the deep penetration of its Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) model in its home market.

A Strategic Pivot: From Solar to Smartphones

M-KOPA’s journey to 10 million customers is rooted in a fundamental strategic shift that occurred in 2020. Founded in 2011, the company initially gained international acclaim for its innovative use of mobile money to finance solar home systems for off-grid households. While the solar business provided the initial proof of concept for M-KOPA’s credit-scoring algorithms and remote asset-locking technology, the company recognized a larger opportunity in the digital economy.

In 2020, M-KOPA expanded into smartphone financing, a move that transformed its business model from a hardware provider to a gateway for financial inclusion. By financing smartphones, M-KOPA provides customers with the essential tool required to participate in the modern economy. However, the smartphone is only the beginning; the company utilizes the device as a platform to offer a broader suite of services, including digital loans, health insurance, and device protection. This "platform approach" has allowed M-KOPA to build long-term relationships with customers, moving beyond a single transaction to a lifetime of financial engagement.

Jesse Moore, Co-Founder and CEO of M-KOPA, noted that the 10 million customer mark validates the company’s core thesis regarding the creditworthiness of informal workers. "Every Day Earners have always been creditworthy. What they needed was credit built around how they really make a living, not a payslip," Moore stated. "Informal has never meant unviable. 10 million customers on, that’s no longer a belief. It’s proven."

Nigeria: The Engine of Rapid Expansion

While Kenya remains M-KOPA’s largest and most mature market, Nigeria has emerged as the company’s fastest-growing region. Since entering the Nigerian market in 2019, M-KOPA has disbursed more than ₦231 billion (approximately $170 million) in credit to over one million Nigerians. Notably, Nigeria became the fastest market in the company’s history to reach the one-million-customer milestone, reflecting the massive untapped demand for consumer credit in Africa’s most populous nation.

The success in Nigeria is particularly noteworthy given the country’s complex macroeconomic environment, characterized by currency volatility and high inflation. M-KOPA’s ability to scale in such a climate is attributed to its localized approach and its robust distribution network. To manage the physical logistics of asset financing, the company has built a proprietary distribution engine consisting of more than 40,000 sales agents across its five active markets. These agents provide the "last-mile" connection, educating customers on the PAYG model and facilitating the physical delivery of devices.

Financial Performance and Operational Scale

The company’s growth is backed by a consistent 50% average annual revenue growth rate since 2020. This growth is sustained by a high-frequency repayment model; M-KOPA currently processes more than two million individual customer repayments every single day. This micro-repayment structure—where customers pay small daily or weekly amounts via mobile money—is designed to align with the fluctuating cash flows of informal earners, such as market traders, small-scale farmers, and "boda-boda" (motorcycle taxi) operators.

Faraimose Kutadzaushe, M-KOPA’s Chief Finance Officer (CFO), emphasized the scalability of the model in a recent statement. "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," Kutadzaushe said. He further noted that the company is already laying the groundwork for its next 10 million customers, implying further geographic expansion or product diversification.

The Competitive Landscape of Asset Financing

M-KOPA operates in an increasingly crowded asset-financing sector. Competitors such as Sun King, d.light, and EasyBuy are also leveraging the PAYG model to extend credit for smartphones and consumer electronics. Sun King and d.light, which, like M-KOPA, started in the solar energy space, have similarly pivoted toward broader consumer finance. Meanwhile, EasyBuy has focused aggressively on the Nigerian retail market through partnerships with major smartphone brands.

Despite the competition, M-KOPA’s competitive advantage lies in its sophisticated data analytics and its integrated financial services platform. By tracking repayment behavior on a daily basis, M-KOPA builds a comprehensive credit profile for users who lack traditional credit histories. This data allows the company to offer follow-on products, such as cash loans or upgrades to more expensive assets, with a high degree of confidence in the borrower’s reliability.

Timeline of Key Milestones

The path to 10 million customers can be traced through several pivotal moments in M-KOPA’s history:

• 2011: M-KOPA is founded in Nairobi, Kenya, launching its first pay-as-you-go solar products.
• 2015: The company reaches 200,000 households, becoming a global poster child for the "Social Enterprise" movement.
• 2018-2019: M-KOPA hits its first 1 million customers and begins exploring market expansion into Nigeria.
• 2020: A strategic pivot into smartphone financing begins, fundamentally changing the company’s growth trajectory.
• 2023: M-KOPA secures over $250 million in new debt and equity funding to fuel expansion, one of the largest rounds in African tech history.
• October 2025: The company reports its first annual profit, alongside a 66% jump in revenue.
• November 2025: Kenyan operations surpass $1.6 billion in total credit disbursed.
• February 2026: Nigerian operations report ₦231 billion ($170 million) in credit disbursed to 1 million local customers.
• Mid-2026: M-KOPA officially crosses the 10-million-customer mark across five countries.

Broader Implications for Financial Inclusion

The success of M-KOPA provides a blueprint for how fintech can address the "credit gap" in emerging markets. According to the World Bank, hundreds of millions of people in Sub-Saharan Africa remain unbanked or underbanked. Traditional banks often view these individuals as high-risk due to their lack of formal employment and collateral.

M-KOPA’s model solves this problem by using the financed asset itself as collateral. Through IoT (Internet of Things) technology, the company can remotely disable a smartphone or solar system if a customer fails to make a payment. This "soft collateral" significantly reduces the risk of default and allows the company to lend to individuals who would otherwise be rejected by formal financial institutions.

Furthermore, the integration of device protection and insurance into the smartphone package provides a safety net for low-income earners. If a customer’s phone—their primary tool for work—is damaged or stolen, M-KOPA’s protection plans ensure they can remain connected and productive. This holistic approach to financial wellness is a key factor in the company’s high customer retention rates.

Future Outlook: Reaching the Next 10 Million

As M-KOPA looks toward its next phase of growth, several challenges and opportunities remain. The company’s ability to maintain its 50% annual growth rate will depend on its success in newer markets like South Africa and Ghana, as well as its ability to navigate the regulatory landscapes of different jurisdictions.

There is also the potential for M-KOPA to expand its asset-financing portfolio even further. In some markets, the company has already begun piloting financing for electric motorcycles (e-bikes), tapping into the growing demand for sustainable urban mobility. By applying its proven credit model to higher-value assets, M-KOPA could significantly increase its average revenue per user while driving environmental impact.

The achievement of 10 million customers is not just a victory for M-KOPA, but a testament to the resilience and economic potential of Africa’s informal sector. By proving that "informal" does not mean "unviable," M-KOPA has opened the door for a new era of digital finance on the continent, where credit is accessible to those who need it most, regardless of whether they have a payslip. With 10,000 new customers joining the platform every day, the company is well on its way to becoming one of the most influential financial institutions in Africa.