Kenyan-based home furniture startup MoKo secures a $6.5 million series B debt-equity capital round that was co-led by the American investment fund Talanton and the Swiss investor AlphaMundi Group, the startup is now looking toward its next stage of expansion.

The company’s Series A round was co-led by Novastar Ventures, and Blink CV also made follow-on investments. The $3 million in debt funding was provided by Kenya’s Victoria Commercial Bank, $1 million of which is mezzanine financing, which is debt that can be converted into equity.

MoKo, which used to be called Watervale Investment Limited, was started in 2014 with the goal of helping furniture makers get the raw materials they need.

To service the mainstream market, it changed course in 2017 and began a pilot for its first consumer product (a mattress). A year later, MoKo Home + Living was introduced.

According to the startup, over the past three years, it has multiplied five times, and its goods are now in more than 370,000 homes in Kenya.

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Over the coming years, as it expands its product portfolio and scales up production, it wants to sell to millions of homes. Its best-selling MoKo mattress is one of its current offerings.

MoKo plans to use the money to grow and expand in Kenya by using its online platforms and expanding its partnerships with merchants and stores to boost offline sales. It intends to buy additional equipment as well.

MoKo has already invested in "equipment that can take complex woodworking designs programmed by our engineers and execute them accurately in seconds," showing that it uses digital technology in its production lines. They claim that as a result, the team has been able to operate more productively. They have also reduced waste with the use of “automated recycling technologies and software that determines the best usage of raw resources.”

MoKo wants to grow its customer base and enter three new markets by 2025. The need for furniture on the continent is growing because more people are moving to cities and their incomes are going up.