Cameroon's REasy Scores $1.8M Boost to Supercharge African Trade Deals

A fresh Cameroonian startup called REasy is making waves in the world of cross-border commerce, announcing a hefty $1.8 million pre-seed funding round to fuel its mission of smoothing out trade hurdles for small African businesses. The cash injection, led by heavy hitters like Ingressive Capital, Launch Africa, and 54 Collective, comes with backing from Digital Africa and a lineup of angel investors including Christophe Chausson of Chausson Partners and Joël Nana Kontchou from Cameroon Network Angels. For REasy's co-founders, this is the rocket fuel they need to scale up operations and crack open new markets across West Africa.

Launched just two years ago by Brice Mba and Mathieu Wing, with Richard Kue and Stéphane Meng jumping on board early, REasy zeroed in on a glaring pain point: African importers getting bogged down by sky-high fees, fraud worries, and a nightmare of red tape when dealing with suppliers abroad. Their slick app bundles everything from foreign currency payments and logistics to compliance checks, letting small traders wrap up international deals without juggling a dozen middlemen. Picture this: importers pay in local Central African Francs through familiar channels like Orange Money or MTN Mobile Money, while REasy handles the global side via Alipay, WeChat Pay, or UnionPay. Once the funds land, settlements zip through to suppliers in minutes, not the usual weeks-long slog. The team even teamed up with the Bank of Central African States to craft a smart foreign exchange setup that sidesteps big banks, converting payments through official channels for speed and security.

The impact is already turning heads. On the bustling China-Cameroon trade route, which clocked $3.71 billion in imports last year, REasy has hooked thousands of users who now settle bills lightning-fast, slashing costs that once nibbled up to 8 percent of every deal. Across Africa, where imports have ballooned from $27.6 billion two decades ago to over $600 billion today, these small and midsize outfits often lose out on opportunities due to delays and distrust. REasy flips that script, collecting payments via hubs in the UK, France, and Hong Kong before flipping them into euros through the central bank pipeline.

With the new funds, the company plans to ramp up customer outreach, beef up its tech backbone, and snag licenses to push into high-potential spots. Nigeria tops the list, with its $25 billion-plus annual haul from China ripe for disruption. Looking further out, REasy eyes hooking into the Pan-African Payment and Settlement System by 2027 or 2028 to tap intra-African flows, then branching into routes like India to East Africa and Brazil to West Africa by 2030. The ultimate goal? Serve a million importing businesses continent-wide by decade's end.

Brice Mba, co-CEO, couldn't hide his excitement about the path ahead. "We will use the funding to accelerate customer acquisition, strengthen our technology infrastructure, and secure new licenses in our target markets, particularly in West Africa," he said. "Our goal is simple: to enable more African businesses to trade globally, without friction. An African entrepreneur should be able to pay a foreign supplier as easily as a merchant in Europe or Asia. By making these transactions frictionless, we unlock both capital and confidence for the millions of SMEs that form the backbone of Africa’s economy."

Lina Kacyem, an investment manager at Launch Africa, echoed the optimism, praising the startup's regulatory savvy. "Their BEAC regulatory breakthrough creates a defensible competitive moat, this is about unlocking billions in trade currently blocked by infrastructure gaps." As REasy gears up for this next chapter, it's clear the startup isn't just easing payments; it's paving the way for a bolder, more connected African trade scene.