Alliance, a New York-headquartered crypto accelerator and founder community, has invested $500,000 in Kenyan fintech Cloud9 as part of the company’s ongoing pre-seed funding round.

The round also includes Techstars NYC and strategic angel investors. Cloud9 said the fundraising brings its total funding to $1 million, although the amounts contributed by the other investors were not disclosed.

Cloud9 provides digital banking services for businesses and is positioning its platform as financial infrastructure for African companies trading across borders. The company said it will use the new capital to expand payment corridors, improve the user experience, launch virtual and physical cards, and grow its base of African consumers and businesses involved in global trade.

Building cross-border payment infrastructure

Cloud9 launched its product in early 2026. The company says it has since created more than 25,000 accounts, while transaction volume has increased by more than 15% week over week. Those figures have not been independently verified.

According to Cloud9, users can hold Kenyan shillings, US dollars, euros, pounds and Chinese yuan. The platform also allows users to send payments to suppliers in more than 100 countries, receive international payments through virtual accounts and withdraw funds to mobile money.

The company says its treasury operations cover more than 120 countries. Its payment network is also intended to support direct payments to Mainland China, Hong Kong, India and Southeast Asia, alongside intra-African collections and disbursements in local currencies.

Cloud9 says it uses USDC or USDT to move value between countries and currencies on the backend. Founder and chief executive officer Tesh Mbaabu said the approach is designed to reduce reliance on correspondent banking and allow the company to establish new payment corridors without needing a bank in every market. That assessment is based on the company’s own description of its system.

“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,” Mbaabu said. “Where an entrepreneur is based should not limit who they can buy from or sell to.”

Alliance general partner Imran Khan said the accelerator viewed stablecoins as an emerging settlement mechanism for international commerce. “Stablecoins are becoming the settlement layer for global trade, and Africa is where that shift matters most,” Khan said.

Expansion through acquisitions

Cloud9 has also expanded through acquisitions. In August, it acquired social commerce platform Chpter in an undisclosed all-stock transaction. In May, it acquired Kenyan ticketing company M-Tickets for about KES 100 million, equivalent to approximately $773,000, in another all-stock deal.

The company said the acquisitions are intended to extend its reach across different parts of business activity, including events, consumer spending and social commerce. Cloud9 plans to build additional financial services around those commercial relationships.

Mbaabu and Mesongo Sibuti launched Cloud9 in October 2025 after leaving Chpter, where they had been co-founders. They joined Chpter in early 2024 and stepped down from its day-to-day operations in September 2025.

Cloud9 generates revenue through foreign-exchange spreads and transaction fees. It also charges monthly fees on some multi-currency accounts and wallets. Its product range includes payroll, bulk-payment and team-approval tools, while Cloud9 Wealth gives Kenyan users access to savings vaults and global stock markets.

The company operates in a Kenyan payments market where Safaricom’s M-Pesa remains widely used. Other providers named in the market include Pesapal, Flutterwave and Wise. Cloud9 said its immediate focus is to broaden its payment network and make international financial services more accessible to African businesses.