If you’re on social media, you have probably seen the posts about ‘sleeping on a MoKo mattress, well, the Kenyan furniture startup Moko Home + Living has announced that it has raised $6.5 million for expansion in the Kenyan market.
This Series B debt-equity funding round was co-led by by U.S.-based investment fund Talanton and Swiss investor AlphaMundi Group with other investors like Novastar ventures, Blink CV, and Kenya’s Victoria Commercial Bank which offered $2 million debt financing chipping in.
Apart from funding its expansion in the Kenyan market, Moko also plans to use the funds to build more partnerships with retailers and outlets to increase offline sales and purchase more equipment.
Founded in 2014 by Eric Kouskalis, MoKo’s managing director and Fiorenzo Conte, Moko Home + Living started out as Watervale Investment Limited, an entity that sought to fix raw material supply issues for furniture manufacturers. It however pivoted in 2017 and piloted its first consumer product (a mattress) launched the MoKo Home + Living brand to serve the mass market a year later.
The startup now claims to have grown five-fold over the last three years, with its products currently in more than 370,000 homes in Kenya. MoKo mattress is the one of its popular products in the Kenyan market and it intends to scale up its production capacity and grow its product line over the next few years.
“We plan to have an offering for each major piece of furniture in a typical home — bed frame, TV stand, coffee table, carpet. We are also developing even more affordable products in existing product categories — sofas and mattresses.” Kouskalis told journalists.
“We were impressed by MoKo’s climate-friendly local production capabilities. The company is a leading innovator in the industry because they’ve turned sustainability into a remarkable commercial advantage. Every step they’ve taken on this front not only protects the environment, it also improves the durability or affordability of MoKo’s offering to its customers.” Miriam Atuya of the AlphaMundi Group said when speaking on the transaction,
MoKo targets to enter three new markets by 2025
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