The administrator of collapsed clean cooking start-up Koko Networks has failed to secure a buyer willing to pay a meaningful price for the company’s carbon credits, threatening efforts to recover money owed to creditors.
A carbon credit is a tradable certificate that represents the removal or reduction of one tonne of carbon dioxide or an equivalent greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.
The certificates are bought to comply with governments’ regulations or to meet a company’s self-imposed environmental targets.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which took over the management of the start-up in February, estimates the company’s carbon inventory to be worth £274,992 (Sh47.1 million).
In new filings to the UK government, the administrator says it has held discussions with three potential buyers and five brokers over the six months to August 18 but has yet to conclude a sale.
“Discussions were held with three potential purchasers and five brokers. However, no sale had been concluded as at the date of this report. We have engaged a broker to market the carbon credits and a number of offers have been received to date,” PwC said in the disclosures.
“The administrators do not consider that these offers would generate a meaningful return to the estate. Accordingly, the carbon credits will continue to be actively marketed to secure an improved sale price.”
Koko Networks filed for administration in Kenya on February 1 after the government declined to issue it with a letter of approval (LoA) to export carbon credits, saying the company would have exhausted Kenya’s share of the market.
The company relied on carbon credit sales to offset losses from supplying heavily subsidised bioethanol stoves and fuel to low-income households. It served more than 1.5 million households in Kenya before shutting down.
Koko’s business model depended on selling carbon credits generated by its clean cooking operations in international carbon markets, which companies like airlines use to offset their carbon footprint.
Koko had been selling credits in voluntary markets. Credits in the compliance markets cost about $20 (Sh2,596), about 10 times the price collected in voluntary markets.
The Kenyan unit was the sole supplier of credits to its UK parent firm, and the failure to secure approval to access the higher-value compliance markets crippled the group’s revenue model.
Koko’s collapse left it with debts of £127.2 million (Sh21.8 billion) against assets of just £1.45 million (Sh248.8 million) available to preferential creditors, according to filings by the administrator made in March.
The £126.9 million (Sh21.8 billion) deficiency means creditors face substantial losses as administrators seek to sell the remaining assets and wind down the company’s operations.
PwC said it had recovered Koko’s information technology assets such as laptops and computer monitors from former employees.
The remaining laptops were sold following an external valuation, generating net proceeds of £1,230.64 (Sh210,947), which PwC was still awaiting payment for at the time of the report.
The administrators had previously estimated the company’s computers and equipment to be worth £8,419 (Sh1.4 million).
Koko’s intellectual property–creations such as inventions, brand names and creative works–is being marketed through a joint sales process involving the liquidator of the firm’s product design subsidiary Saarus Innovations Pvt Limited, and Koko Networks Private Limited, both in voluntary liquidation, alongside the administrator of Koko Networks Mauritius.
“If this sales process results in a successful sale, a legal advisor will be instructed to assess whether any portion of the net proceeds should be received by the company,” the administrator said.
The asset sale process began on July 17 as the administrators seek to realise value from the collapsed business.
Management accounts show the Kenyan business generated £44.7 million (Sh7.7 billion) in revenue in the year ended December 2025, up from £38.4 million (Sh6.6 billion) in 2024, as it pursued access to compliance markets to achieve profitability.
Following the collapse, Koko’s UK parent disclosed that it had written off £35.5 million (Sh6 billion) in loans owed by its Kenyan subsidiary after determining that the debt would not be repaid. It also marked down £1.32 million (Sh226.2 million) in intangible assets linked to its intellectual property portfolio.
