Why Kenyan digital bank Cloud9 acquired Mtickets in $773,000 deal

Tesh Mbaabu believes that finance begins in personal life.

People wake up thinking about where they want to go, who they want to meet, or what they want to do, and not their banks, he explained. While consumers may not actively think about financial services, money powers almost every decision they make.

“That is why I think the intersection of lifestyle and fintech has become very important and interesting,” he told TechCabal in an interview on Thursday, May 14. “It’s not just about moving money; it’s about what you can offer beyond payments infrastructure.”

That thinking formed the rationale behind why Cloud9, the Kenyan digital bank Mbaabu founded with Mesongo Sibuti, acquired Kenyan ticketing platform M-Tickets in an all-stock deal valued at roughly KES 100 million ($773,000).

The deal comes seven months after the cofounders exited Chpter, the social commerce startup that helps businesses sell and communicate with customers across platforms like WhatsApp and Instagram. 

The acquisition gives Cloud9 access to a platform that says it has processed more than one million tickets across concerts, transport and sports events since 2014.

“On the surface, Mtickets looks like a ticketing platform,” Mbaabu said. “But for us, we see it as a really strong point of contact with the youth, while they’re going about their daily lives.”

Mbaabu told TechCabal that Mtickets will continue operating as a standalone brand under CEO and founder Brian Bogonko, adding that Mtickets’ services will be integrated directly into the Cloud9 app. 

Cloud9 users can buy tickets on Mtickets and on its app. Event organisers and vendors will also be able to receive payments through Cloud9’s business banking infrastructure.

He also noted that the acquisition could create lending opportunities for event organisers that need upfront capital before ticket revenues come in. Cloud9 intends to use transaction histories and sales performance data from the platform to assess creditworthiness and extend financing to selected organisers, he said.

First announced in October 2025, Cloud9 targets younger African consumers who earn and transact online. The startup offers multicurrency accounts, cross-border payments, virtual cards, savings products and investment tools through partnerships with regulated banks. Users can hold Kenyan shillings, US dollars, euros, Tanzanian shillings and Ugandan shillings within the app, he noted.

Cloud9 currently generates revenue through transaction fees and subscription-based account tiers ranging from a free plan to a KES 999 ($7.73) monthly subscription. The paid tiers include features such as cashback and unlimited transfers.

The deal pushes Cloud9 into competition with digital banks, fintech startups and ticketing platforms such as TicketSasa and Ticket Yetu. Mbaabu argued that Cloud9’s advantage lies in building financial services around user behaviour.

Before Cloud9, Mbaabu and Sibuti co-founded social commerce startup Chpter and retail-tech company MarketForce. Mbaabu said both ventures shaped his understanding of how African consumers and merchants use digital services.

“Each experience has built on top of the other in terms of just understanding what the continent needs from an innovation perspective,” he said. “It has made me better positioned to join the dots between how merchants operate and what they really need.”

Cloud9 publicly launched in March 2026 after initially operating through a waitlist. The startup said it has thousands of users signed up and is recording hundreds of new registrations daily.

Cloud9 plans to launch its business banking product publicly later this month and is exploring consumer credit and buy-now-pay-later products tied to ticket purchases and merchant activity on the platform.

Mbaabu said the company remained open to more acquisitions and partnerships as it expands beyond consumer banking into embedded financial services.

“The future of fintech won’t be defined by who builds the best banking app. It will be defined by who understands where life happens — and builds there first,” he wrote in his personal blog. “ For us, Mtickets is a step in that direction. Not because we want to be in ticketing. But because we want to be closer to life. And life doesn’t start in banking apps. It never did.”