Kenyan digital bank Cloud9, which enables cross-border payments and borderless banking for African consumers and businesses, has secured an undisclosed investment from crypto and fintech accelerator Alliance, taking the startup’s total funding to date to US$1 million.
Disrupt Africa reported in late-2025 Tesh Mbaabu and Mesongo Sibuti were to launch a new digital banking platform called Cloud9.
Mbaabu and Sibuti are best known as founders of MarketForce, which began life in 2018 as a sales force automation software company, but soon pivoted to operate a B2B retail marketplace, RejaReja, where informal merchants in Africa could source, order and pay for inventory digitally and conveniently, as well as other things.
The startup was selected into Y Combinator, raised a US$2 million seed round, and followed that up with what was in theory a US$40 million Series A in 2022. MarketForce, however, was forced to close down RejaReja in 2024, after failing to adequately scale it given the global “funding winter”. The pair pivoted to a new joint venture, Chpter, which provides AI-powered chat automation tools for businesses on platforms like WhatsApp and Instagram, before launching Cloud9, a newer version of an old venture.
Cloud9 is targeting the gap faced by Kenyan entrepreneurs who import more than US$20 billion worth of goods a year, much of it from China, Dubai and India. Moving money across borders remains slow and expensive for these businesses, with banks taking up to two weeks to open business accounts and days to settle each wire transfer, while informal agents offer speed but no record or recourse. Mobile money, meanwhile, does not work across borders.
Built on stablecoin rails, Cloud9 gives entrepreneurs a single mobile account to hold, send, receive, save and invest money across currencies and borders. Users can hold Kenyan shillings, US dollars, euros, pounds and yuan, pay suppliers in more than 100 countries within minutes, receive payments from overseas clients through dedicated virtual accounts, and cash out to mobile money.
Businesses can also run payroll, bulk payments and team approvals from a single dashboard, while the startup’s Cloud9 Wealth product gives Kenyans access to savings vaults and global stock markets.
“Kenya already skipped the bank branch once. Mobile money became how the country pays for almost everything, but only within its borders,” said Mbaabu. “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.”
Cloud9 went live in early 2026, and has since seen more than 25,000 accounts created. The startup says its transaction volume is growing by more than 15 per cent week-on-week.
“Stablecoins are becoming the settlement layer for global trade, and Africa is where that shift matters most,” said Imran Khan, general partner at Alliance. “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.”
Cloud9 will use the new funding to expand its cross-border payment corridors, improve its product experience, launch virtual and physical cards, and grow its user base.
