Cloud9, a digital bank offering instant international payments and modern money tools to African consumers and businesses, has secured a strategic investment from Alliance, taking its total funding to $1m.
Alliance, which describes itself as a leading accelerator and fund for digital asset and FinTech start-ups, is backing the company as it pursues its goal of becoming the go-to neobank for the continent’s entrepreneurs with global ambitions.
Cloud9 will put the fresh capital towards opening more cross-border payment corridors, improving its product experience, rolling out virtual and physical cards, and attracting more African consumers and businesses that trade internationally through its app.
The company is targeting a sizeable problem. Kenyan firms bring in more than $20bn worth of goods every year, with China, Dubai and India among the main sources, it said. Despite this, sending money abroad remains a slow and expensive process for the business owners making those payments. Opening a business bank account can take as long as two weeks, and individual wire transfers may need several days to clear. Informal agents offer speed but provide neither a paper trail nor any protection if something goes wrong. Meanwhile, mobile money, the backbone of everyday trade in Kenya, cannot be used beyond the country’s borders.
Cloud9 runs on stablecoin infrastructure and offers entrepreneurs a single mobile account for storing, transferring, receiving, saving and investing funds in multiple currencies. Customers can keep balances in shillings, dollars, euros, pounds and yuan, settle invoices with suppliers across more than 100 countries within minutes, accept money from overseas clients via dedicated virtual accounts, and withdraw to mobile money whenever required.
Business users can also manage payroll, bulk transfers and team sign-offs from one dashboard, while the Cloud9 Wealth offering opens up savings vaults and international stock markets to Kenyan users.
Since launching in early 2026, the platform has seen more than 25,000 accounts opened, with transaction volumes rising by upwards of 15% each week.
Cloud9 founder and CEO Tesh Mbaabu said, “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 who they can buy from or sell to.”
Alliance general partner Imran Khan said, “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.”
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