Raenest
“Can an Africa-built cross-border banking stack become the default global money account for emerging-market freelancers and businesses?”
Founded2022
HQFrisco, TX, US (with offices in Lagos, Nigeria and Toronto, Canada)
FoundersVictor Alade (CEO), Richard Oyome (COO), Sodruldeen Mustapha (CTO)
Total raised~$14M (disclosed)
Latest roundSeries A, 2025
IndustryFintech / Cross-border payments
The story
Raenest started as a cross-border banking solution for African freelancers (under the Geegpay brand) facing barriers to receiving USD from global marketplaces like Upwork. After demonstrating PMF among individual remote workers, the company expanded to a business product targeting African startups — pitching itself as a Mercury alternative after Mercury's 2024 compliance changes locked out African founders. Most recently it has layered on stablecoin rails and stock investing, repositioning as a 'global money partner' rather than just a payouts product.
Product timeline
2022
Raenest founded in Lagos to solve cross-border payment problems for African freelancers and remote workers.· launch
2023
Launched Geegpay consumer product offering virtual USD/GBP/EUR accounts and cards for freelancers.· banking
2024
Expanded to serve African businesses with multi-currency business accounts.· banking
2025
Raised $11M Series A led by QED Investors.· funding
2025
Rebranded Geegpay under unified Raenest brand; expanded into stablecoins (USDC/USDT) and stock investing.· pivot
Regulated entities
1
regulatory licence held by Raenest
Licence types, jurisdictions and registered entities are in the Embedded Finance Index report.
The stack
7 layers disclosed in Raenest’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Raenest (self-operated payouts)
Money movement
in the full report
Banking / BaaS
in the full report
Card issuing
in the full report
Ledger
in the full report
Sponsor bank
in the full report
FX & payouts
in the full report
Accounting gap: significant
9 more providers across 6 layers, with confidence-scored evidence and source URLs, are in the Embedded Finance Index report.