Serial entrepreneur, CEIBS MBA 2020 alumnus, and Co-Founder of app-based payments platform REasy as well as the companies Winko Solar and WingTech Solutions, Mathieu Tse has always been attracted to emerging markets and their inherent sense of possibility. Speed, adaptability and perseverance, he believes, are the most crucial characteristics needed to identify a viable opportunity and thrive in such spaces.

“You don’t need to be a genius,” says Mathieu. “The problems are usually obvious, and so are the solutions. You’re not trying to develop a world-changing idea; you’re solving an obvious pain point. It’s simple, but it’s not easy – emerging economies reward solutions that are reliable, intuitive and beneficial to the end users. You have to work just as hard to get it right.”

Developing a global mindset

Mathieu’s entrepreneurial approach is the product of his life across four continents. Born in Hong Kong, he grew up in French Guiana on South America's northeast coast before studying in France and going on to work in China and, more recently, across eastern, western and central Africa.

His interest in learning from and adapting to other cultures began early. Though French Guiana has a sizeable Chinese population, Mathieu and his brother were the only two students of Chinese origin in the whole of his junior school.

“It was hard at times. You want to be like your classmates, to be accepted by them. But for me, the question of identity is central; finding my identity helped me to build character, it built strength, and it built an open mind for business as I aimed to learn from everyone around me,” Mathieu recalls.

French Guiana, an overseas territory of France with a complex history and lingering societal issues including violence, also taught Mathieu an unforgettable lesson in resilience. At the age of 14, his first job was to work in a small local shop. The hours were long, the work was tiring, but most memorably, on multiple occasions Mathieu had to hide behind the store’s beer barrels to avoid stray bullets fired by passing gangsters on motorcycles.

“Experiences like this certainly give you a different perception of risk!” Mathieu laughs, unfazed by the memory. “It’s a crazy story to share now, but it highlights how your early experiences and exposure to hardship can help you tolerate all kinds of challenges in business.”

Cutting complexity in African cross-border payments

Well acquainted with both risk and resilience, in recent years Mathieu has looked towards Africa as the ideal region to test his entrepreneurial approach of plugging in ”obvious solutions to evident problems” and making them stick through persistent hard work.

Brought to market in Cameroon in 2023, REasy is the brainchild of Mathieu and three of his co-founder friends, who designed it to address a persistent issue faced by the overwhelming majority of African SMEs.

“Cross-border payments are very complicated in Africa,” Mathieu explains. “If the owner of a small business wants to use international suppliers, they suffer. Banks can take weeks to process a single transfer, so many go through middlemen who can charge as much as 15% commission. And that’s before you factor in the potential for scamming and other types of fraud.”

With this status quo causing so many headaches for millions of SMEs across the continent, Mathieu and his friends knew they were looking at a vast B2B opportunity. They built REasy as a user-friendly way to fill the payments infrastructure gap left unaddressed by conventional banks.

Simplicity and reliability fuel growth

After signing up, REasy users can add funds to their account, upload their supplier’s invoices, make payments directly through the app, and even track their progress in real time. In four simple steps, the platform allows African SMEs to cut through all the needless costs and complexities associated with established overseas payment methods.

By leveraging Cameroon’s high smartphone penetration rate (roughly half of the population own a smartphone and 75% have access to 3G or 4G networks), REasy has enjoyed rapid success building a userbase due to the app’s inherent simplicity and ease of use.

“We go directly to the business owners and talk to them about their biggest pain points. 99% of them say that they have issues with making payments. They try our app, and they stay with us because it works. Then they tell their friends who have businesses, because no doubt they’re experiencing the same issues. This approach takes time because you’re having detailed conversations with people to learn their business and earn their trust, but so far, it’s proving a reliable engine for growth,” Mathieu shares.

REasy’s growth isn’t limited to the Cameroon market either. Making a successful cross-border transfer of its own, REasy recently expanded into the Ivory Coast and Mathieu hopes to follow up with further expansions in 2026. After raising $1.8 million in a pre-seed round, he and the rest of the team are eager to see just how far their model of simplifying payments for African SMEs will take them.

“Africa had $719 billion in imports last year,” says Mathieu, “and SMEs are the predominant business type here, so they represent a huge portion of the payments market. It’s clear to us that this is working; we’ve already had offers to acquire our technology, which we politely declined. We want to push on and become a true tech leader for Africa’s financial payments sector.”

Persevere and innovate for long-term success

To any would-be entrepreneur with an appetite for emerging markets, Mathieu has three pieces of advice – get used to the pressure, test extensively, and choose your partners carefully.

“It’s tough, there’s no other way to say it,” he admits. “You have a lot of freedom because the landscape is fluid, but everyone is watching you, waiting for you to supply the vision and drive it forward. That can be a lot harder in a place where infrastructure, regulatory systems and so on are less mature. You have to keep faith in your long-term plans and not get discouraged by the inevitable short-term shocks and setbacks.”

Testing, innovating and incorporating feedback are essential practices for any venture in a young economy. Mathieu explains that just because your target pain point is clear-cut and your proposed solution is obvious, that doesn’t mean you can afford to remain static in your approach.

“Usually, your first idea does not work, or it certainly will not work perfectly. So, try again, and again if necessary. Push yourself to innovate quickly; if you are too slow to adapt, you will fall behind and your business will just die.”

Finally, Mathieu attributes REasy’s success to the collective capabilities of the entire founding team. When building a new business in a less predictable competitive environment, partnerships are tested to their limits, making early decisions even more important.

“Choose the right partner. Really ask yourself: are these people you want to work with for several years? Do they share your values? Do you know their strengths and weaknesses?  Surface-level suitability is not the same as digging deeper and discovering if you are a good long-term fit. So many startups fail early due to a misalignment of expectations and values between partners,” Mathieu says.

With his sights set on REasy’s expansion, Mathieu is confident that the strengthening economic links between Africa and China will encourage more business leaders on both sides to look for easier ways to engage in reliable cross-border trade.

This article is based on an interview between Mathieu Tse and CEIBS MBA 2009 alumnus Jeff Pi, host of CEIBS Alumni International Chapter (CAIC) podcast ’Unscripted’. Listen to full episodes of CAIC Unscripted on Youtube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favourite podcast platform.