M-KOPA has acquired KilpiTek Oy, a Finnish software company that provides device locking and related technology services, for USD 8 million or about KES 1.04 billion. M-KOPA sells smartphones and electric motorbikes on credit in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa. The group obtained control on 26th March 2026 by buying 100% of KilpiTek’s voting equity interests.

Device locking determines whether customers can use the phones they are paying for. On M-KOPA’s instalment plans, software can restrict access when payment credit runs out. Locking also helps the group get its money back. When it estimates how much of its loan book it will lose, it assumes some of that money will be recovered by locking phones. The purchase gives M-KOPA greater control over that part of its financing business.

M-KOPA bought KilpiTek mainly to bring device locking in-house. It also wants a firmer hold on its technology platform, and the deal supports its broader phone sourcing strategy. The group’s accounts cover the year ended 31st December 2025 and were filed at Companies House, the UK’s company register, on 5th October 2026.

A customer can take home a smartphone after making a deposit and pay the remaining amount over time. M-KOPA’s privacy notice describes a daily check. If the account has enough credit, the phone keeps working for another day. If no payment has come in, use expires under the terms of the customer’s agreement.

M-KOPA says its customer care team sends an SMS or push notification before deactivation. That gives customers a chance to catch up on payments, discuss their account or ask for the decision to be reviewed.

That system predates the acquisition. Back in 2020, we explained how M-KOPA’s Samsung Galaxy A10s phones would lock through Samsung’s Knox software when daily instalments were missed. HMD, the Finnish phone maker behind Nokia-branded handsets, also names M-KOPA as a customer of its Softlock service, which lets financing companies remotely restrict devices over late payments or fraud risks.

KilpiTek’s own website lists device locking, software development and device management among its services, and says its security products support pay-as-you-go and micro-financing businesses. Its head office is in Tampere, Finland. M-KOPA has used locking tools from both Samsung and HMD, and the accounts tie this purchase to its phone sourcing. Owning KilpiTek suggests M-KOPA wants more control over how locking works on the handsets it buys, whoever makes them.

The USD 8 million is a mix of cash and M-KOPA ordinary shares. The cash component is USD 2,666,702 or about KES 345.49 million, a third of the total. The remaining USD 5,333,298, or about KES 690.96 million, is described in the accounts as “Equity instrument, deferred consideration and/or remuneration”. The equity part is a share swap: KilpiTek’s owners took M-KOPA shares in exchange for theirs. Deferred consideration is money paid after the deal closes, and remuneration is pay, so some of the amount may depend on KilpiTek’s people staying on. The accounts do not say how much falls into each. Conversions here use KES 129.56 to the US dollar, the rate on 7th October 2026.

Because the acquisition took place after the 2025 reporting date, M-KOPA treats it as a non-adjusting subsequent event: it is disclosed in the accounts without changing the financial position or results for that year. When the board approved the accounts on 30th June 2026, the group had also not finished allocating the purchase price to the assets and liabilities it acquired. That split will show how much of the USD 8 million was for KilpiTek’s software and other assets, and how much is goodwill, the premium paid on top of them. It should appear in M-KOPA’s 2026 accounts.