As Africa’s tech ecosystem booms, extra individuals from the area are touchdown distant jobs with huge tech corporations and international startups. However getting paid stays a problem for a lot of of those freelancers and distant staff — they wrestle to open accounts that settle for U.S. {dollars}, face gradual invoicing and fee processes, and it doesn’t assist when their international employers use incompatible fee platforms.
Lagos-based Raenest is among the many African fintechs which have stepped in to handle this downside. By its retail product, Geegpay, Raenest provides freelancers digital USD, GBP, and EUR accounts to obtain funds, handle multi-currency wallets and convert currencies. It additionally supplies digital and bodily debit playing cards that settle for a number of currencies like U.S. {dollars}.
Final March, the corporate expanded its platform to cater to companies to streamline worldwide remittance with a brand new model, Raenest for Enterprise. Now, the startup has raised $11 million in Collection A funding, led by QED Buyers, to increase its attain throughout Africa.
Progress past freelancers
Apparently, Raenest didn’t begin with freelancers in thoughts. Victor Alade, together with co-founders Sodruldeen Mustapha and Richard Oyome, launched the corporate in 2022 as an Employer of Document (EOR), serving to international corporations pay African staff in compliance with native norms.
However a few months in, the founders realized the actual downside didn’t lie with the businesses sending funds — it was with people struggling to obtain them.
“A U.S. firm may not care if a fee is delayed by 5 days, however for somebody in Nigeria or Kenya, that’s a giant deal — particularly when changing to native forex turns into one other hurdle,” Alade, a former software program engineer at Jumia and Andela, instructed TechCrunch.
Drawing from his distant work expertise, Alade and his co-founders, who additionally convey expertise working with African fintechs like LemFi and FairMoney, pivoted to handle this ache level.
Geegpay rapidly gained traction with freelancers, however enterprise signups started to rise as nicely. The crew realized that African corporations additionally wanted international accounts to streamline cross-border transactions. “Companies began asking if they may get fastened financial institution accounts to simplify funds. That’s after we began considering: How huge is this chance? Who else is constructing for Africa?” Alade stated.
Raenest’s addition of enterprise banking couldn’t have come at a greater time. Round this time, U.S.-based fintech Mercury began limiting enterprise accounts from a number of international locations, together with elements of Africa. In the meantime, competitors within the EOR house was heating up, with main gamers like Deel beginning to take into account serving the continent extra carefully.
These occasions spurred Raenest to lean into what it noticed as a greater alternative: Providing African companies a technique to obtain and ship worldwide funds.
A viable gambit
The guess appears to be paying off. Since launching in 2022, Raenest has processed over $1 billion in funds — a 160% improve over the previous two years — to freelancers and companies throughout the continent. At this time, greater than 700,000 people use the platform to obtain funds from international platforms like Upwork, Fiverr and Gusto. Additionally they use it for on-line procuring and subscriptions.
On the enterprise aspect, over 300 corporations depend on Raenest to gather funds from worldwide prospects, increase capital from buyers, and make cross-border funds. Its shopper record contains startups like Moniepoint, Helium Well being, Fez Supply, and Matta.
Raenest competes with a number of fintech startups providing multi-currency accounts to prospects in Africa, together with Afriex, Cleva, Fincra, Gray, Verto and Leatherback. Alade argues that Raenest has an edge as a result of it targets people and companies, in contrast to most gamers that cater completely to a type of buyer personas.
The corporate’s ambitions prolong past cross-border funds. “We wish to create a protected and seamless monetary ecosystem for Africans — serving to them earn, make investments and develop their wealth, regardless of the place they’re on this planet,” Alade stated, hinting at upcoming product launches.
Growth plans
At the moment, Raenest operates in Nigeria below a cash switch license. As a part of its progress plans, the corporate will look to deepen its presence in Nigeria and safe licenses in Egypt, Ghana, Kenya and the U.S.
The corporate has banking partnerships within the U.S. and U.Ok., and it’s also working to safe extra in these areas because it scales. Alongside the way in which, the corporate, which claims to be worthwhile, goals to draw expertise to assist its growth because it brings Geegpay and Raenest for Enterprise below a single model, Raenest.
The Collection A spherical, which is coming after a $700,000 pre-seed and $2.6 million seed, brings Raenest’s complete funding to $14.3 million.
Lead investor QED, one of many world’s prime fintech VC corporations, has been steadily rising its footprint in Africa since 2022. It has backed 5 fintech startups on the continent: Moniepoint, Remedial Well being, Precium, Cedar Cash, and now, Raenest.
“We firmly consider that by bridging the hole between native and international markets, Raenest will unlock new alternatives for African entrepreneurs, freelancers and companies, finally driving higher financial empowerment throughout the continent,” stated Gbenga Ajayi, associate and head of Africa and the Center East at QED Buyers.
Different buyers within the spherical included pan-African VC corporations Norrsken22, Ventures Platform, P1 Ventures and Seedstars.
