M-KOPA Solar, the world’s leading pay-as-you-go energy provider to off-grid homes, has announced the closing of a $19m financing round led by London-based Generation Investment Management.

Colin le Duc, Partner at Generation Investment Management, said: “Under the stewardship of an outstanding management team, we believe that M-KOPA has consistently demonstrated its role as a global leader in terms of robust technology, market traction and scale.”

“With 1.3 billion people currently off-grid, M-KOPA’s innovative model means that modern solar-powered appliances can be made affordable to a huge new market. In addition to attractive long-term financial returns, this brings clear climate advantages and financial savings for low-income customers,” he said.

Other investors in the round included founder of Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson, the Case Foundation (Jean and Steve Case), as well as reinvestment by existing shareholders.

M-KOPA’s equity investors include Gray Ghost Ventures, LGT Venture Philanthropy, Lundin Foundation, Blue Haven Initiative, TreeHouse Investments and DOB Equity.

M-KOPA provides off-grid customers a way to leapfrog over expensive and unreliable grid power and benefit from solar power on their own roof.

M-KOPA makes its solar home systems affordable to low-income households on a pay-as-you-go instalment plan.

Customers acquire solar systems for a small deposit and then purchase daily usage “credits” for US $0.45, or less than the price of traditional kerosene lighting.

After one year of payments customers own their solar systems outright and can upgrade to more power.
In just three years since commercial launch, M-KOPA has connected more than 280,000 homes in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda to solar power and is adding over more 500 homes each day.

M-KOPA has over 2,000 full time staff and sales agents across East Africa.

The company is on track to reach its initial target of one million homes in East Africa by end 2017.

The new investment will be used to further expand the company’s management team, product range and international operations.

Jesse Moore, CEO and Co-Founder of M-KOPA, said: “We’re very pleased to have the world’s leading sustainability investors and entrepreneurs backing us at M-KOPA.”

“We’re proving that solar power for the off-grid world will be transformative for customers, good for the planet and profitable for investors. In just three years we’ve reached over a quarter-million homes across three countries and we are just getting started,” he said.