The Raenest investment came down to three things: a founder with genuine insight into a problem she'd lived personally, a market timing signal we'd been watching for 18 months, and a model that had already worked in analogous markets.
The problem — that African remote workers and global professionals had no reliable, affordable way to hold and transact in foreign currencies — was not new. But the enabling conditions for solving it had just arrived. Mobile money infrastructure was mature. Regulatory appetite for digital financial products had shifted. And the growth of remote work had accelerated the demand signal significantly.
We made the investment before there was revenue, before there was meaningful product, and before institutional investors had noticed the category. That is the pre-seed thesis, executed.
There's a version of "founder-friendly VC" that is mostly passive: write the check, attend the board meeting, don't interfere. That's not what we do.
From the Raenest investment onwards, our involvement was active and specific. We worked closely on fundraising narrative — how to position the round, which investors to target, how to sequence the process. We provided introductions to potential enterprise customers. We shared data from our business model database on how analogous companies had priced, structured, and grown their products.
None of this replaces what a strong founding team does. But it compresses timelines and reduces the cost of mistakes that don't need to be made if you've seen the pattern before.
"They didn't just invest capital — they became true strategic partners in Raenest's growth journey." — Victor, Co-founder, Raenest
Every pre-seed investment eventually faces the same question: do you follow on in the next round, and at what price?
Follow-on discipline is one of the most important — and least discussed — aspects of early-stage portfolio management. Investing too mechanically in every follow-on round dilutes the signal. Not investing when conviction is high leaves value on the table and can create misalignment with the founder.
The Raenest Series A was led by QED Investors — one of the most respected fintech-focused funds globally. Their involvement was validation of the thesis and the team. Our decision to follow on was informed by our ongoing relationship with the founders, our view of the market dynamics, and the quality of the lead investor. All three factors aligned strongly.
The current unrealised multiple on our Raenest position is 11.7× our entry cost. We're cautious about leading with this number for several reasons.
First, it's unrealised. The value is real in the sense that it reflects a market-clearing price set by a quality investor — but it's not cash in hand. Exit timing, market conditions, and a dozen other factors will determine the ultimate realised return.
Second, one position does not make a track record. Fund I has 20+ companies. The portfolio-level story — the IRR, the TVPI, the DPI as exits begin to occur — is what matters. Raenest is the leading indicator, not the conclusion.
What the number does tell us is that our pre-seed thesis — investing early in founders with structural insight, in markets where the enabling conditions are arriving — produces outcomes worth pursuing. That conviction shapes Fund II.