Geegpay is the flagship product of Raenest, building a borderless payment infrastructure for fintech African talent and businesses. The flagship product automates the invoicing process used to get paid for work done by freelancers while providing multi-currency accounts to hold them.
As globalization and skilled workers proliferate in Africa, the traditional workplace becomes borderless.
Businesses looking for talent are no longer limited to recruiting within their geographic location but can expand their search to the rest of the world. Thus opening them up to a greater range of talent options and suitable work models such as full-time, part-time, and project-based hires.
Likewise, Africans have acquired digital skills to work remotely for international companies. Let’s consider developers as a subset of the skilled workforce. A Google and Accenture report said professional developers grew by 3.8% and now make up 0.4% of the continent’s non-agricultural workforce. Interestingly, at least one in three African developers work for companies outside the continent.
How do they get paid?
Previously, skilled Africans seeking remote work were excluded from the global economy. But as cross-border payments startups emerge, led by Africa, the challenges of high fees, long transaction completion timelines and poor customer service are being addressed. However, getting paid isn’t the only challenge.
Registered businesses require proper bookkeeping and invoices for compliance. Freelancers and remote African workers should use additional platforms to generate invoices for their payments. After receiving their foreign currency payments, they have to convert it to their local currency or spend it online. Often, these come at higher costs, reducing the final value of their salary.
“GeegPay by Rainest was created to simplify global payments and automate invoicing for freelancers while minimizing transfer fees and adverse exchange rates,” Victor Alade, co-founder and CEO of Raenest—Geegpay’s parent company, tells Benjamindada.com. “Since our launch, we have been committed to providing reliable payment solutions to African freelancers and remote workers.”
With Geegpay, freelancers can create and automate invoices, open foreign bank accounts in global currencies—USD, GBP and EUR—and instantly generate a virtual USD debit card and convert their foreign currency to their local currency.
Geegpay has become a popular platform for freelancers on sites like Upwork and Fiverr, with Raenest processing tens of millions of dollars for freelancers and employees on these platforms within eight months of launch.
Speaking about the use cases, co-founder and COO Richard Oyome says, “Many of our 200,000 customers are full-time remote employees or freelancers who work for employers and clients in the US, UK and Europe. These are talented people in freelance markets. E.g. Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer.com, hourly person and many more. We have also seen many clients connect their Geegpay USD bank account to platforms like Deel, Payoneer, and Remote.com. This makes them easy to get and convert locally. exchange rate.”
Geegpay’s popularity is due to its simplicity, fast payment process, and low transaction fees. “Sometime last year, a client in the US was ready to cancel the project if I didn’t provide him with a US bank account to pay. Geegpay helped with the virtual account, and I was able to save the project.” FrancescoA gigpay user said.
Raenest’s services extend beyond freelancers, as the company also offers foreign business bank accounts and cards to African startups. While Geegpay focuses on individuals, Raenest for Business focuses on businesses. These businesses can use the platform to pay their contractors and suppliers in 30 countries in the currencies of their choice.
In October 2022, we named Raenest as one of the Nigerian startups in the Techstars Toronto Winter Batch. They also closed a pre-seed round with participation from Ventures Platform, SeedStars, TCVP, Voltron Capital, Azim Capital, Africa Conflict Fund, Adamantium Fund, Hawk Club and other angel investors.
With a focus on addressing the unique challenges of working and operating in Africa, Raenest is poised to impact the region’s business landscape, offering solutions like GigPay that streamline invoicing and payment processes, keeping costs down and cost-effective for freelancers and businesses alike. Improving efficiency. .
This article was created in partnership with Raenest.