Cameroon: Start-up lensX launches an online marketplace for African merchants

A Cameroonian start-up, lensX, launched an online marketplace for African businesses in October 2026, according to specialized sites Disrupt Africa and Business Tech Africa. Founded by entrepreneur Ikomi Henry, the platform consists of two web products: lensX Marketplace, for buyers, and lensX Vendors, which allows merchants to list and sell their products.

Moving commerce off social media

The starting point is one familiar to any seller in Douala, Lagos, or Abidjan: most online sales today take place on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook, in a scattered and informal manner. "Many African businesses still rely heavily on social media," summarizes the founder, as quoted by Disrupt Africa, describing a need for structured commercial infrastructure. The ambition of lensX is to bring together catalogs, payments, and customer relations in a single dedicated space.

A project still funded by its founder

The company remains self-funded by its founder at this stage and does not report significant revenue. It says it is seeking strategic partnerships and outside investors to support its development. The announced business model relies on several sources: transaction commissions, paid services for sellers, subscriptions, product highlighting, advertising, and promotions.

The technological roadmap is ambitious: AI-assisted product discovery, followed by an augmented reality shopping experience, with lensX claiming to aim for the status of one of the first African marketplaces to integrate this technology. Immediate priorities are more prosaic: increasing the number of sellers and customers, expanding the catalog, and refining the platform based on feedback from early users.

The obstacles of a market still under construction

The founder cites three difficulties encountered during the construction of the service: regulatory compliance, integration with third-party providers, and access to infrastructure. This last point is telling: certain technical and financial services remain reserved for already established companies, a barrier that many young start-ups on the continent face even before securing their first client.

Launched first in Cameroon, the platform announces its intention to expand to other African markets and then internationally. There is no guarantee it will succeed: African e-commerce is a graveyard of promising platforms, and the obstacles of logistics and cross-border payments have not disappeared. But the gamble that African entrepreneurs are building the infrastructure for their own commerce themselves, rather than renting it from foreign platforms, is worth following.