African trade finance platform raises $1.8m
The round was backed by Ingressive Capital, Launch Africa, 54 Collective, Digital Africa, and Techmind alongside prominent fintech angels.
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REasy, a pan-African trade finance platform, has raised $1.8 million in a pre-seed round. The funding follows a regulatory milestone in which the company co-developed with the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) the first foreign exchange mechanism tailored to small and mid-sized importers in Central Africa.
The round was backed by Ingressive Capital, Launch Africa, 54 Collective, Digital Africa, and Techmind alongside prominent fintech angels including Christophe Chausson (Chausson Partners), Mathias Léopoldie (Julaya), Marième Diop (Dakar Network Angels), and Joël Nana Kontchou (Makoe Ventures).
While African imports grew to more than $600 billion in 2023, small and mid-sized businesses continue to face systemic barriers. These include payment delays of seven to 14 days, transaction costs of 5% to 8%, fraud risks of up to 40%, and banks rejecting transactions below $50,000 – the traditional threshold for trade finance processing.
Founded in 2023, REasy operates an integrated platform that links African payment systems such as Orange Money, MTN Mobile Money and bank transfers with international methods used by suppliers, including Alipay, WeChat Pay and UnionPay. The company also plans to offer licensed customs brokerage and freight forwarding through a single platform.
“Our belief is simple: an African entrepreneur should be able to pay a foreign supplier as easily as a merchant in Europe or Asia,” says Brice Mba, co-CEO of REasy.
“Before REasy, paying my supplier in China took 10-14 days with high fees and fraud risk. Today, payment is instant and goods arrive within days,” adds Fabrice, an electronics trader in Douala, Cameroon.
Working directly with BEAC, REasy developed a mechanism that enables compliant foreign exchange operations for SME transactions under $10,000 – a segment completely unserved by traditional banking. The framework provides real-time regulatory reporting while balancing trade facilitation with capital flow controls.
The platform has drawn interest from thousands of active importers on the China-Cameroon corridor, representing $3.71 billion in imports in 2023.
“REasy’s BEAC regulatory breakthrough creates a defensible competitive moat – this is about unlocking billions in trade currently blocked by infrastructure gaps,” says Lina Kacyem, investment manager at Launch Africa.
“REasy delivers a complete solution combining ease and security for importers, while providing traceability and compliance for regulators,” says Maya Horgan Famodu, partner at Ingressive Capital.
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