A woman-owned trading finance platform is now positioned to scale its footprint in Africa.
Liquify
Established in 2023 by Nadya Yaremenko and Alberta Asafo-Asamoah, the Ghanaian company is the “first fully digital trade finance platform on the continent,” its website mentions. It exists to connect small and medium-sized enterprises in Africa with capital markets across the globe. The Condia reports that the platform allows exporters to turn unpaid invoices into cash in the same day while investors can tap into a high-yielding asset class with the added perks of short maturities and low market correlation.
What’s more, Liquify has integrated AI into its due diligence process to create more competitive rates for exporters selling to investment-grade buyers along with lower operational costs.
“We built Liquify to unlock the $120 billion trade-finance gap holding back Africa’s most dynamic SMEs,” Yaremenko (CEO) said, according to The Condia.
$1.5M Raise
Liquify has already financed $4 million in trade through 150 transactions since its beta launch in 2024. Now its founders will work to improve the platform in light of a $1.5 million seed raise led by Future Africa with participation from Launch Africa Ventures, 54 Collective, Digital Africa, and Equitable Ventures, as well as angel investors.
The funding will scale Liquify’s footprint into Anglophone and Francophone markets, improve its due diligence process powered by AI and credit-scoring engines, and expand its teams across product, technology, and customer-success, Yaremenko shared on LinkedIn.
“I’m excited to officially announce the close of Liquify‘s $1.5 million oversubscribed seed round from earlier this year (plus several debt commitments) to supercharge the growth of our invoice financing platform across Sub-Saharan Africa,” Yaremenko said. “…The rapid commercial growth we are seeing at Liquify clearly shows how critical the problem of accessing affordable working capital is for our SME customers. With this financing, I’m excited to take Liquify through its next chapter alongside the world class team we have built.”
