Cloud9, a Kenyan startup that offers digital banking services for businesses, has acquired social commerce platform Chpter in an all-stock deal, marking its second acquisition in three months after buying ticketing platform M-Tickets in May for about KES 100 million ($773,000).
Cloud9 declined to disclose the financial terms of the Chpter deal.
The deal reunites founders Tesh Mbaabu and Mesongo Sibuti with the company they left in September 2025 before launching Cloud9 weeks later. It also provides the clearest indication yet of Cloud9’s strategy: acquiring businesses where customers already transact, then layering financial services on top.
“The simplest way to understand the Chpter acquisition is that Cloud9 is building financial services around the places where people and businesses already transact, rather than treating banking as a standalone activity,” Mbaabu told TechCabal on Saturday. “Together, we plan to connect conversations, transactions and financial services in one ecosystem.”
Cloud9 has shut down the standalone Chpter app and will integrate its AI-powered sales tools for WhatsApp and Instagram into the company’s business banking platform. About 4,500 businesses using Chpter will continue operating through Cloud9, while members of Chpter’s product, engineering, customer success, and commercial teams have joined the company. According to Mbaabu, Mark Kiarie and Kevin Kuria, who led Chpter’s day-to-day operations after Mbaabu and Sibuti departed, will not join Cloud9.
