What is Koppoh?
Koppoh is a business growth ecosystem designed to help African MSMEs build, finance, and grow their businesses. It brings together different services that address major challenges businesses face, including Koppoh Academy, which helps entrepreneurs develop and structure their businesses; Koppoh Finance, which helps businesses access suitable financing; Koppoh Fundraise, which connects businesses seeking growth capital with investors, VCs, and strategic partners; and Koppoh Media. Koppoh Academy is currently listed as live, while others including Koppoh Finance are coming soon.
So What Did I Do?
In this project, I took Koppoh Finance, one of the products listed as ‘coming soon’ in the ecosystem and I brought it to life on paper.
What Was The Challenge?
Koppoh had positioned Finance as a forthcoming product within its broader ecosystem for helping African MSMEs grow. But the public product definition was limited.
I approached the project as a PMM preparing an early-stage product for launch: Who should Koppoh Finance serve first? What problem should it own? How should it differentiate? And how could the product be brought to market?
What I was given vs. what I had to figure out
| Known Facts | Unknown Facts (To Figure Out) |
|---|---|
|
• Koppoh's stated mission • Existing ecosystem • Public description of Finance • Target market |
• Specific customer segment (ICP) • End-to-end product experience • Core value proposition • Competitive positioning & messaging • Launch & GTM strategy |
My Approach
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2. Customer + Market Research
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3. Positioning & Messaging
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4. Live Landing Page Creation
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5. GTM Strategy
Defined the Product
As an early-stage product, most of the moving pieces had not yet been solidified. So, I created a one-pager product document listing the standard facts about this product that would create something tangible to work on for the rest of the project. There, I clarified things like what is Koppoh Finance? What does the product actually do? What are its major features and capabilities? And many more pieces.
View Product One-Pager Document →The Customer
I extensively researched the customers Koppoh Finance would be built to serve. What did the research tell me?
The core pain is not lack of money, it is that every available route for the MSME is hostile: banks reject on documentation; loan apps charge 30–260% APR with harassment; loan sharks demand 10–30%/month.
Over 51% of informal MSMEs have stopped seeking formal financing entirely (up from 30% in prior years) according to a 2026 economic policy and academic research study on SME survival and credit exclusion in Nigeria. The market suffers from a deep trust exhaustion crisis.
MSMEs survive on family/friends, esusu/rotating savings, and cooperatives. These community rails are the true alternatives Koppoh competes against.
The deepest emotional wound is feeling invisible to institutions ('banks don't see my potential'), combined with an awareness vacuum around non-debt financing models.
67% of bank rejections stem directly from lack of collateral and unbankable documentation, not unviable businesses according to the IFC. Loan readiness is the actual job to solve.
The Opportunity
I took an aerial view of the market Koppoh Finance was to operate in. Who are we up against? And what field are we playing in? Here's what I found.
Nigeria alone has a $32.2B unmet MSME financing gap (according to IFC). The fintech SME lending platform segment is growing at ~19% CAGR, projected to reach $1.2B by 2031. This is not a niche. It is the foundational market opportunity.
Moniepoint, FairMoney, OPay, Carbon, and Branch are all pushing into SME working capital. They are better-funded, faster, and already distributing. The origination lane is full.
Nobody at scale owns the role of helping MSMEs become loan-ready, then matching them to fair capital. This is Koppoh's uncontested strategic slot and it maps directly onto what customers say they actually want.
51% of informal businesses have stopped borrowing entirely (up from 30%). FCCPC enforcement resumed in July 2026. Branch is rebranding around dignity. The market is now competing on trustworthiness, not just APR.
Better-funded lenders are already moving upstream toward the 'structured but blocked' SME segment that Koppoh targets. The Academy gives Koppoh a head start. Speed is the strategic variable.
Positioning
Once I knew who I was targeting and what market we were operating in, the next question was: what should Koppoh Finance mean to them? Here's what I got.
“For growth-motivated Nigerian MSME founders who are rejected by banks and exploited by predatory lenders, Koppoh Finance is a business finance readiness and matching platform that fixes the documentation gap and connects them to fair, fit-for-purpose capital. Unlike digital lenders who just approve or reject, Koppoh makes you fundable first, then matches you to the right lender.”
And then I distilled that into messaging pillars
We fix the documentation gap and others that keep you from getting capital.
We connect you to the right lender for your business, not just any lender.
We built a relationship with you before we ever talked about money.
You have a real business. We treat it like one. No humiliation. No begging.
Landing Page
I translated the positioning and messaging into a conversion-focused landing page designed around the customer's primary problem and decision barriers.
Visit live mockup (koppoh-finance.vercel.app) →GTM Strategy
Then I asked… How do we get this product into the hands of the right customers? The answer was this proposed GTM Strategy.
View GTM Strategy →Success Measurement
Proposed success criteria:
Because Koppoh Finance has not yet launched commercially, no performance results are being claimed. I therefore defined the metrics I would use to evaluate the launch.
- Academy members reached
- Finance waitlist sign-ups
- Finance enrollment
- Readiness journey completion
- Businesses matched
- Capital disbursements
- Time to funding
- Match-to-disbursement rate
- Net Promoter Score (NPS)
- Customer feedback
- Repeat financing intent
- Referral rate
- Customer acquisition cost
- Funnel conversion rates
- Revenue contribution
- Repeat usage
Because Koppoh Finance is not a product I launched commercially, these are proposed success metrics rather than observed results.
This is an independent PMM case study based on publicly available information about Koppoh. Product decisions, positioning, messaging and GTM recommendations are my own.