Tesh Mbaabu and Mesongo Sibuti, the founders behind the collapsed B2B e-commerce platform MarketForce, are back with a new venture: a neobank for young Africans called Cloud9 Money.
The move into the crowded fintech space marks the third act for the serial entrepreneurs, following a turbulent journey that saw them raise over $42m, expand across five African countries, and ultimately shutter their flagship company.
Their new startup, Cloud9 Money, aims to provide a “10x better financial experience” for Africa’s Gen Z and Millennial population. Mbaabu, now CEO of Cloud9, says the goal is to build a banking platform that addresses the frustrations his generation faces with traditional finance, such as difficult onboarding processes, hidden fees, and poor access to credit.
“Banking in Africa is broken for us,” Mbaabu stated in an announcement. “We’re a tech-savvy, ambitious generation… and we deserve banking that moves as fast as we do.”
The venture is a significant pivot from their previous focus on B2B commerce and logistics.
A Rocky Road to Fintech
Mbaabu and Sibuti’s journey has been a case study in the highs and lows of building a venture-backed startup in Africa.
Their last major company, MarketForce, started in 2018 as a software provider before pivoting into a B2B e-commerce marketplace called RejaReja. The platform allowed informal neighbourhood merchants to order and pay for inventory digitally.
Backed by Y Combinator, the company went on a blitzscaling run, raising a $40m Series A round in 2022. At its peak, MarketForce was active in five countries — Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda — serving over 270,000 merchants and processing nearly $160m in transactions.
However, the growth was not sustainable. The “funding winter” hit, and as Mbaabu later admitted, expected capital failed to materialise. “We got this completely wrong, and it hurt us when the committed capital didn’t fully come through,” he said in a post-mortem blog.
Despite downsizing operations and cutting costs, the company couldn’t reach profitability and announced its closure in 2024.
Following the collapse, Mbaabu and Sibuti briefly joined Chpter, a social commerce startup, in early 2024 to help accelerate its growth. However, their tenure was short-lived. By September 2025, they had stepped down from their roles, handing control back to the original founder, Mark Kiarie.
A “Redemption in Finance”
The founders’ pivot to fintech with Cloud9 Money is not entirely out of the blue. Their experience with RejaReja gave them a frontline view of the financial challenges small merchants and, by extension, young entrepreneurs face across the continent.
Mbaabu frames the new venture as a “redemption in finance,” aiming to restore trust and build products that reflect the reality of how young people live and work today. He points to the continent’s demographics as the key opportunity: by 2030, young Africans are expected to make up 42% of the world’s youth.
“Our vision is simple: make payments and banking effortless, rewarding, and built around how young Africans actually live, work, and play,” he said.
After what Mbaabu calls a “multi-million dollar course in building for the continent,” he and Sibuti are betting that their hard-won lessons in scaling, fundraising, and failure will give them the edge they need to succeed in Africa’s competitive fintech landscape. Cloud9 Money has opened a waitlist ahead of its official launch.