QED leads $11M investment in Nigerian fintech Raenest

Raenest provides freelancers with virtual USD, GBP, and EUR accounts through its retail product, Geegpay, which was introduced in early 2022. These accounts facilitate currency conversion, multi-currency wallet management, and payment receipt. Additionally, Raenest offers both real and virtual debit cards that support a variety of currencies, including US dollars.

With Raenest for Business, a platform that offers African businesses the same financial services and enables them to send and receive foreign payments, the Lagos-based company Raenest went beyond freelancers in March of last year.

Growth beyond freelancers

Fascinatingly, Raenest didn’t begin with independent contractors in mind. The company was founded in 2022 by Victor Alade, Sodruldeen Mustapha, and Richard Oyome as an Employer of Record (EOR), helping foreign businesses to pay African workers in a way that complies with the law.

However, after a few months, the founders came to the conclusion that people’s difficulties receiving payments, rather than businesses providing them, were the true issue.

A five-day payment delay might not bother a U.S. business. As a former software developer at Jumia and Andela, CEO Alade told TechCrunch, “But for someone in Nigeria or Kenya, that’s a big deal—especially when converting to local currency becomes another hurdle.”

Alade and his co-founders, who have already worked with African fintechs like LemFi and FairMoney, shifted Raenest’s focus to resolving this issue by relying on his own experience working remotely.

Freelancers soon adopted Geegpay, but business signups also started to increase. The group came to the conclusion that in order to facilitate cross-border operations, African businesses also required international accounts. “To make payments easier, businesses began asking if they could get fixed bank accounts,” Alade continued. At that point, we began to consider the scope of this potential. Is anyone else constructing for Africa?

There has never been a better moment to introduce commercial banking. Mercury, a fintech company based in the United States, began limiting corporate accounts from a number of nations, including some portions of Africa, around the same time. Due to this market gap, local fintechs like Raenest now have the chance to cater to corporate clients.

In the meantime, there was fierce competition in the EOR market, with big corporations like Deel beginning to pay more attention to the continent.

Due to these occurrences, Raenest decided to take advantage of what it believed to be a superior opportunity: providing African companies with a means of sending and receiving money internationally.

Scaling to serve individuals and businesses

That wager is profitable. Serving enterprises and freelancers around the continent, Raenest has processed over $1 billion in payment volume since its introduction in 2022, a 160% increase between 2023 and 2024. Over 700,000 people utilize the network now to get paid by international platforms like Gusto, Fiverr, and Upwork. Additionally, they use it for subscriptions and online shopping.

However, more than 300 companies use Raenest to make cross-border payments, raise money from investors, and collect payments from foreign clients. African startups Moniepoint, Helium Health, Fez Delivery, and Matta are among its clients.

Raenest has competition from a number of fintech companies, including as Afriex, Cleva, Grey, Verto, and Leatherback, that provide multicurrency accounts to clients in Africa. Raenest, according to Alade, has an advantage over other companies since it targets both individuals and businesses rather than just one kind of client. According to Alade, Raenest promotes speed, security, dependability, and compliance in addition to its dual strategy in order to keep users.

Beyond international payments, Raenest has further goals in mind. Alade alluded to future product releases when he stated, “We want to create a safe and seamless financial ecosystem for Africans — helping them earn, invest, and grow their wealth, no matter where they are in the world.”

Expansion plans

The fintech, which is three years old, is currently using a money transfer license to operate in Nigeria. The company’s next growth phase will include obtaining permits to expand into Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, and the United States, as well as attempting to strengthen its position in Nigeria. Raenest will be able to help Africans both on the continent and abroad thanks to this move.

As it grows, Raenest is also trying to secure more in the United States and the United Kingdom through banking agreements. As it unifies Geegpay and Raenest for Business under the Raenest brand, the firm hopes to draw in top talent to help fuel its growth.

Raenest now has $14.3 million in total funding after the most recent $11 million Series A round.

Since 2022, lead investor QED, one of the leading fintech venture capital firms globally, has been progressively expanding its presence in Africa. Moniepoint, Remedial Health, Precium, Cedar Money, and now Raenest are the five financial services businesses it has invested in on the continent.

According to Gbenga Ajayi, partner and head of Africa and the Middle East at QED Investors, “We firmly believe that by bridging the gap between local and global markets, Raenest will unlock new opportunities for African entrepreneurs, freelancers, and businesses, ultimately driving greater economic empowerment across the continent.”

Pan-African early-to-growth-stage venture capital firms, including Norrsken22, Ventures Platform, P1 Ventures, and Seedstars, are among the other investors in the round.