Pan-African startup Agridex is stepping into the evolving financial technology space with the launch of LOAM, a neobank product designed to simplify and accelerate cross-border commodity trade for agricultural businesses and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Founded in 2023 by Zimbabwean-British entrepreneur Henry Duckworth, the company is building a digital financial infrastructure that allows exporters, producers, and traders to move money quickly across borders, manage liquidity more efficiently, and connect payments directly to real trade transactions.
With operations already spanning Africa, Europe, and Asia, Agridex aims to modernise trade settlements in emerging markets where outdated banking systems often slow down payments and increase transaction costs.
The company’s platform seeks to serve as a one-stop digital marketplace for producers, allowing them to manage logistics, vendor payments, and financing within a single ecosystem.
What Agridex Is and What It Does
At its core, Agridex is building a digital marketplace and financial infrastructure tailored to the needs of commodity traders, particularly those operating in agriculture. The platform aims to streamline the entire trade process, from arranging logistics and payments to accessing credit, within a single digital environment.
The company’s founder, Henry Duckworth, drew inspiration from his early career experiences in global commodity trading, where he witnessed firsthand the inefficiencies in financial systems that support trade in emerging markets.
After beginning his career as the youngest trader at Trafigura, Duckworth spent a decade working across Africa, observing how slow settlement processes and high banking fees could stall international transactions for exporters and producers.
These experiences ultimately led to the creation of Agridex, a platform designed to remove friction from cross-border trade while providing a modern financial backbone for agricultural supply chains.
What You Should Know About Its Product, “LOAM”
Agridex’s flagship financial product is LOAM, a neobank platform built specifically to facilitate payments and financial operations within the global commodity trade ecosystem. The platform provides the financial infrastructure needed to move money rapidly across borders while linking those payments directly to the underlying trade transactions.
According to the company, LOAM functions as a payments and treasury platform that simplifies settlements across multiple currencies and trading partners.
Duckworth explained the platform’s capabilities, noting that, “Our payments and treasury platform streamlines settlement across multiple currencies and counterparties, reducing operational friction and improving cash visibility for agricultural producers and SMEs.”
Beyond simple payments, LOAM is designed to support the complexity of commodity trading by integrating financial processes with operational trade activities.
“The infrastructure is designed to handle the speed and complexity of commodity flows, from supplier and logistics payments to multi-party trade settlements,” Duckworth said.
By embedding financial workflows directly into its system, Agridex enables traders and lenders to deploy capital more efficiently across the global commodity value chain.
Bridging Traditional Finance and Blockchain Efficiency
One of the defining features of Agridex’s platform is its hybrid approach to financial infrastructure. Rather than operating solely as a traditional bank or a crypto-native platform, the company positions itself between the two systems.
This model allows Agridex to combine the regulatory compliance and stability of traditional financial institutions with the speed and efficiency associated with blockchain technology.
Duckworth described this positioning as a strategic balance between the two worlds. “Unlike purely crypto-native payment rails or traditional banks, Agridex positions itself in the middle ground, bridging regulated finance with blockchain efficiencies.”
By adopting this approach, the company hopes to build trust among businesses that require reliable financial systems while still benefiting from modern digital infrastructure that accelerates transactions.
Tackling the Inefficiencies of Emerging Market Banking Systems
The idea for Agridex was shaped by Duckworth’s upbringing in a farming community in Zimbabwe and his extensive work across African markets. During this time, he observed the persistent challenges producers face when trying to access reliable financial services.
Many exporters in developing markets must navigate slow settlement processes, high transaction costs, and limited access to modern banking infrastructure, barriers that can disrupt trade and limit growth opportunities.
Duckworth noted that these inefficiencies highlighted a significant gap in the market.
He identified an opportunity to build a modern treasury and payments system tailored specifically for producers and traders who have historically been excluded from traditional financial networks.
By digitising these financial processes, Agridex aims to reduce delays and provide businesses with greater visibility over their cash flows and transactions.
Expanding Across Africa, Europe, and Asia
Since its launch, Agridex has been expanding steadily across global trade corridors. The company currently operates in Africa, Europe, and Asia, with particular focus on trade routes where African exporters are seeking buyers in European and Asian markets.
Sales representatives are now active in more than a dozen countries, helping onboard exporters and payment facilitators that require faster multi-currency settlements.
According to Duckworth, demand for the platform has been increasing consistently.
“Transaction volumes and client onboarding have increased month after month, especially among agricultural exporters and payment facilitators seeking faster multi-currency settlements,” the founder noted.
This growth suggests that many businesses involved in commodity trading are eager for financial solutions that can simplify the complex process of international payments.
Funding, Partnerships, and Future Expansion
Agridex has also attracted investor interest as it builds its infrastructure for cross-border trade. In December 2024, the company raised a seed funding round that valued the startup at $27.5 million.
Beyond funding, the company has secured strategic partnerships with regional payment networks and commodity exporters, which help validate the scalability of its platform across different markets and jurisdictions.
Looking ahead, Agridex plans to deepen its regulatory presence in additional emerging markets while integrating more closely with local banking institutions.
These partnerships will help expand payout coverage and ensure the platform remains compliant with financial regulations in the regions where it operates.
How Agridex Generates Revenue
Agridex generates revenue primarily through transaction-based services within its platform. Businesses using LOAM pay fees for cross-border payments, treasury management services, and liquidity provisioning.
The company also expects to diversify its revenue streams by offering white-label financial infrastructure and API-based treasury integrations that other businesses can embed into their own systems.
While the startup is still in its early stages, Duckworth says rising transaction volumes and growing adoption suggest strong commercial traction.
As global trade becomes increasingly digitised, Agridex is positioning itself as a key financial infrastructure provider for agricultural commodity flows, an area that remains underserved by traditional banking systems.
Talking Points
Agridex’s approach reflects a growing recognition that Africa’s commodity trade ecosystem suffers not only from logistical bottlenecks but also from outdated financial infrastructure that slows cross-border settlements and limits liquidity for producers and exporters.
By introducing LOAM as a specialised neobank platform, the company is attempting to solve a structural problem in international agricultural trade, the disconnect between physical commodity flows and the financial systems used to settle transactions.
The idea of linking payments directly to underlying trade deals while enabling multi-currency settlements could significantly improve transparency, cash-flow visibility, and transaction speed for SMEs that often struggle with delayed payments and high banking fees.
However, while the model is promising, its long-term success will depend heavily on regulatory compliance across multiple jurisdictions, trust from traditional financial institutions, and the ability to scale partnerships with banks and payment networks in diverse markets.
Additionally, positioning itself between regulated finance and blockchain efficiency may offer technological advantages, but it also places the startup in a complex space where regulatory clarity and institutional acceptance will be crucial.
If executed effectively, Agridex could play a meaningful role in modernising financial infrastructure for commodity trade in emerging markets, though the challenge will lie in proving that its technology can operate reliably and at scale across Africa’s fragmented financial systems.
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