Kenyan digital banking platform Cloud9 has secured a $500,000 equity investment from Alliance, a New York-based crypto accelerator and founder community. The funding is part of Cloud9’s ongoing pre-seed round and brings the company’s total disclosed funding to $1 million, following earlier backing from Techstars NYC and strategic angel investors. The investment signals growing global confidence in African fintech solutions that use blockchain technology to solve real business problems.
What Is Cloud9?
Cloud9 is a digital banking platform that provides financial services for both consumers and businesses. Founded in late 2025 by Tesh Mbaabu and Mesongo Sibuti, the company launched its product in early 2026 and has already created more than 25,000 accounts. Its transaction volumes are growing by more than 15 per cent week over week, according to company figures.
The platform allows users to hold multiple currencies, including Kenyan shillings, US dollars, euros, British pounds, and Chinese yuan. Users can send payments to suppliers in more than 100 countries, receive international payments through dedicated virtual accounts, and withdraw funds to mobile money when they need local currency. For businesses, Cloud9 offers tools for payroll, bulk payments, and team approvals, while its Cloud9 Wealth product gives Kenyan users access to savings products and global stock markets.
Solving a Real Problem for African Traders
Cloud9 is targeting a significant gap in the market. Kenyan businesses import more than $20 billion worth of goods every year, much of it from China, Dubai, and India. However, moving money across borders remains slow and expensive. Opening a business bank account can take up to two weeks, and individual wire transfers may need several days to clear. Informal agents offer speed but provide no paper trail or protection if something goes wrong. Meanwhile, mobile money, which is the backbone of everyday trade in Kenya, cannot be used beyond the country’s borders.
Tesh Mbaabu, Cloud9’s founder and chief executive officer, explained the vision behind the platform. “Kenya already skipped the bank branch once. Mobile money became how the country pays for almost everything, but only within its borders. With Cloud9, a merchant in Nairobi should be able to pay a supplier in Guangzhou as easily as they pay a vendor down the street. Where an entrepreneur is based should not limit whom they can buy from or sell to”.
How Stablecoins Make It Work
A key part of Cloud9’s technology is its use of stablecoins, specifically USDC and USDT, to settle cross-border transactions. When a customer initiates a payment, Cloud9 uses these digital currencies to move value between countries and currencies on the backend. This approach allows the company to move money between markets without having to establish traditional banking relationships in every country.
Imran Khan, general partner at Alliance, explained why his firm invested in Cloud9. “Stablecoins are becoming the settlement layer for global trade, and Africa is where that shift matters most. Tesh has built for African merchants at scale before, and Cloud9 is turning stablecoin rails into an everyday bank account for the entrepreneurs who need it most”.
Growing Through Smart Acquisitions
Cloud9 has been expanding rapidly through acquisitions. In May, the company acquired Kenyan ticketing platform M-Tickets for about KES 100 million, which is roughly $773,000, in an all-stock transaction. In August, it acquired social commerce platform Chpter, also in an all-stock deal, adding approximately 4,500 businesses that already sell through WhatsApp and Instagram.
The idea behind both deals is to buy platforms where customers are already doing business, then add financial services on top of those relationships. This strategy allows Cloud9 to reach businesses at different points in their commercial activity and layer financial services onto existing transactions.
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Experienced Founders Who Have Learned from Failure
Tesh Mbaabu and Mesongo Sibuti are not new to the startup world. They previously founded MarketForce, a B2B e-commerce platform that raised over $42 million and operated in Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda, serving more than 270,000 merchants before it eventually shut down. The founders then joined social commerce platform Chpter in early 2024 before launching Cloud9 in October 2025.
This experience of building and scaling a business, even one that ultimately did not survive, has given the founders valuable lessons that they are now applying to Cloud9. The fact that Alliance is willing to invest in them again speaks to their track record and the trust they have built in the African startup ecosystem.
What the New Funding Will Do
Cloud9 plans to use the new capital to expand its cross-border payment corridors, improve the product experience for users, launch virtual and physical cards, and attract more African consumers and businesses that trade internationally. The company’s treasury operations already cover more than 120 countries, and its payment network supports direct payments to Mainland China, Hong Kong, India, and Southeast Asia, as well as collections within Africa and local currency disbursements.
Cloud9 generates revenue primarily from foreign exchange spreads and transaction fees. It also charges monthly fees on certain multi-currency accounts and wallets. The company has indicated plans to develop additional products around its business account, including credit options and various card offerings.
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Competing in a Crowded Market
Cloud9 operates in a competitive Kenyan payments market. Safaricom’s M-Pesa remains deeply embedded in everyday transactions across the country. The company also faces competition from other payment providers such as Pesapal, Flutterwave, and Wise, which serve businesses with payment collection and cross-border capabilities.
However, Cloud9’s focus on stablecoin infrastructure gives it a unique advantage. By using digital currencies as a settlement layer, the company can offer faster and cheaper transfers than traditional correspondent banking, enabling it to open new payment corridors without needing a bank in each country. This makes it particularly well-suited to serve African businesses that are increasingly participating in global trade.
