The Lock Is Theirs: M-KOPA Buys the Phone-Switch Firm for KSh 1.03 Billion

M-KOPA now owns the software that can switch off a phone when the daily payment does not come in.

The company bought 100 per cent of the voting shares in KilpiTek Oy, a Finnish software firm, on 26 March 2026. TechCabal quoting M-KOPA's financial disclosures, put the price at $8 million, about KSh 1.03 billion at KSh 129 to the dollar. Cash was $2.67 million, about KSh 344.43 million.

The other $5.33 million, about KSh 687.57 million, was shares, a delayed payment, and pay. A local report of about KSh 1 billion is the same deal, not a second one. The transfer was completed after the 31 December 2025 reporting date, so it did not change the 2025 profit.

KilpiTek writes the lock. On a pay-as-you-go phone, the customer pays a deposit and then a daily amount. If the money stops, the handset can be restricted or shut. That is the security, in place of a title deed. M-KOPA said the purchase was meant to bring that switch in-house. It did not disclose KilpiTek's sales, profit, or staff.

What changes for the person holding the phone

The loan does not get cheaper because the lender owns the lock. The daily amount is still the daily amount. What changes is who decides when the screen goes dark, and which handsets the lock can sit on. A lender that rents the switch depends on the firm that wrote it. A lender that owns it can fit the switch to phones it buys from more than one factory.

Licensed phone lenders had issued KSh 165.10 billion by August. M-KOPA's handset plan is a cousin of that market, secured by the device rather than by a payslip. A missed day can still turn the phone off. Owning KilpiTek means that decision now sits in Nairobi, not with a supplier in Finland.