Power for everyone.
In April 2015, M-KOPA launched its own upgrades service for productive assets – including water tanks, energy-efficient cooking stoves and smart phones. In the two years since launch, it has sold over 150,000 upgrade products.
M-KOPA has established a separate business unit – M-KOPA Labs – to conduct research and development of additional products and services that run on its power and finance platform. It currently has research projects underway with several strategic partners and is looking at new products and market extensions across a range of sectors.
M-KOPA customers now enjoy over 62.5 million hours of kerosene-free lighting per month and they will save over 600,000 tonnes of CO2 over four years.
We work to provide solar energy access through mobile phone payments
Customers pay a deposit of 3,500 KES (approx $35), take the system home then pay 50 KES (approx $0.50) a day for a period of one year, to own the solar system. Daily payments are made through M-Pesa, a mobile phone-based money system, at about 45 cents a day. This way, in addition to getting solar power, customers also slowly off-set the cost of the device. As of 2015, after 12 months of regular payments, the solar system is fully owned by the customer who can use it for free access to solar energy.
M-Kopa Solar sells through a network of dealers, across Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.
In 2015, the M-KOPA III device had one solar panel, two LED lights, a USB phone charger, and a solar powered radio that was portable. The latest M-Kopa 4 had an eight-watt solar panel that charges cell phones, a radio and a torch, via USB, includes 2 LED bulbs with light switches, as well as a rechargeable LED torch (flashlight) and a radio. There is a more powerful panel and television in an upgrade package.
We work passionately on our technology
M-KOPA has developed a proprietary, patented technology platform that combines embedded GSM + mobile payments to revolutionize asset financing in emerging markets. The M-KOPAnet platform has been designed and built from the ground up by our talented team of software engineers, who continue to innovate and improve the system every day. It offers a powerful combination of accounting, customer relationship management and inventory tracking in one complete system.
Aside from enabling our business operations to scale at record speed, the M-KOPAnet™ platform captures and processes huge volumes of data, enabling us to improve our proposition, customer service, and security in real-time.
M-KOPA Labs
M-KOPA Labs is the arm of M-KOPA that undertakes Research and Development of products and services that are 12-18 months from the market. We are defining and testing a range of new commercially scalable products and services for low income, off-grid households. This includes leveraging the credit relationship that we have with our customers to enable further purchases of productive assets.
M-KOPA’s ‘pay-as-you-go’ solar model has helped open up exciting new consumer markets. As off-grid energy connections increase, we are seeing millions of new consumers, with greater financial stability and – for the first time – access to power.
M-KOPA Labs is building partnerships to explore new ways for these consumers to save, earn, learn and invest. We also share knowledge on our model and off-grid consumer behavior, to help grow our industry and improve the lives of low income, off-grid households all over the world.