Well, I’m Steph, and I’m from Nigeria, Lagos precisely. I’d like to share one or two things with you in regards to your topic  and I hope you find them interesting.
Setting up an exchange should be easier and obtaining license too should be pretty much easier in most part of EU and Asia, but you’ve forgot to outline how you’re gonna deal with the huge competition in those regions and that field. Since many cryptocurrency exchanges are erected in EU, most especially the island of Malta and Estonia, it will be very challenging for a new startup to compete with the big names that have already established grounds.
In my own little opinion, I’d suggest you make a move to an economy that’s yet to be explored by large cryptocurrency firms and has a very huge potential for the cryptocurrency market. For this, I’d suggest you to come to my country, NIGERIA, which is Africa’s largest economy and Africa’s largest cryptocurrency and blockchain center. There aren’t any cryptocurrency exchange set up in Nigeria. In fact, there aren’t any standard cryptocurrency exchange in Nigeria. But the Nigerian Cryptocurrency Marketplace industry are dominated by three peer to peer cash-to-crypto exchanges such as The Seychelles owned remitano, Indian runned localbitcoins and Paxful. Although Nigerians don’t use traditional Coins-to-coins exchanges as they prefer trading with cash against crypto. If you could come and set up an hybrid platform that will offer both fiat-to-crypto exchnage and Crypto-to-crypto exchange, then it would be superb. Although your company may need to compete with those we Nigerians already knows and use, but it’s a competitive world. Who does it better will win at the end. There are tools which you may introduce into Nigeria which will drive major crypto fans and enthusiasts towards your exchange. The reason why I’m sharing with you is because I’ve once noticed a drea m to create a cryptocurrency exchange that will be Nigeria and Africa’s largest cryptocurrency firm, but due to lack of capital and support, I couldn’t pursue that dream. It’s even the cause of my profile getting a negative trust from some two biased users, lol, who couldn’t take time to find out what the main reason of me seeking partners might be. Back to the topic, I do documented my own whitepaper which gives a detailed information about the cryptocurrency exchange (it’s proposed name, features, evolution plan and other planned sub-product to compete with the big players (paxful, binance Uganda and remitano)it’s vision, mission and some other useful details).  If you wish, I may provide you with a lite copy of this paper. If you really consider my opinion, please I’d like to work with you in creating an exchange for the better tomorrow. If you needed to contact me, you can do so anytime through adexson@icloud.com or WhatsApp my phone number at +2348111403638. Best regards.