What a year 2025 has been for Jesse Moore. Already a central figure in Africa’s financial inclusion story, the co-founder and CEO of M-KOPA used the past year to deliver something few impact-driven startups ever manage: profitability at scale.
In 2025, M-KOPA turned its first-ever profit, a milestone that capped years of patient execution and validated its pay-as-you-go model in one of the world’s most demanding consumer markets. Revenue surged 66% to $416 million, underscoring not just growth, but resilience—at a time when many African fintechs were cutting back amid tighter capital and weaker household spending.
That financial breakthrough was matched by market leadership. This year, M-KOPA Kenyan operations crossed the $1.6 billion mark in the pay-as-you-go market, cementing its position as one of the largest and most consequential consumer-finance platforms on the continent. Under Moore’s leadership, the company has moved well beyond its solar roots, financing smartphones, digital services, and income-generating assets for millions of customers living outside the formal credit system.
What distinguishes Moore’s 2025, however, is not just the numbers. As scrutiny around digital lending intensified, he steered M-KOPA toward greater discipline—strengthening affordability checks, improving transparency, and doubling down on long-term customer trust.
That humanity has mattered in a period of economic strain across Africa, when inflation, job insecurity, and shrinking household incomes have tested the resilience of the very consumers M-KOPA serves. Rather than retreat, Moore has pushed the company to adapt: rethinking products, repayment structures, and partnerships to remain aligned with customers’ realities.
