Trade finance technology firm,TradeIX on Friday announced that it closed a new investment round worth $16 million. The round was led by ING ventures together with investor Kistefos, BNP Paribas, and Tech Mahindra.
According to the announcement, the main priorities for the extra funding are increasing hiring rates and accelerating customer acquisition. The company also plans to invest in the developments of its open platform for trade finance.
Kistefos, BNP Paribas, and Tech Mahindra all have a successful track record of investing in Fintech providers like TradeIX. Prior to the venture round, Norwegian investment company Kistefos was already an investor, and increased its stake as part of the transaction.
TradeIX offers the world’s first open platform for trade finance leveraging blockchain technology. It connects with existing trade platforms and applications, enabling trade business to become more efficient and transparent.
Because the company’s solution is decentralized, clients can add the platform to their existing platforms and applications and improve their connectivity to the wider trade ecosystem.
CEO of TradeIX, Robert Barnes.
Source: BankingTech.com
Commenting on the success of the investment round, TradeIX CEO and Founder Rob Barnes said: “This round is a significant stepping stone for us. We are very excited to bring in ING Ventures, BNP Paribas, Tech Mahindra as new investors, and to continue our partnership with Kistefos. After having proven our technology with DHL and multiple banks, the investment will help us to further develop our open platform.”
Jacques Levet, Head of Transaction Banking EMEA at BNP Paribas, said: “We believe that TradeIX is at an inflection point, and look forward to working with the team to deliver several new innovations that we believe will fundamentally change how banks are offering and managing trade finance solutions for their corporate clients.”
Mark Buitenhek, Head of Transaction Services of ING, also added that TradeIX is an open platform, which embodies what ING thinks the future of financial services will be.
Open account trade finance
Towards the end of 2017, TradeIX, along with R3, announced a joint initiative to overhaul the open account trade finance infrastructure by using Blockchain technology.
The initiative includes twelve banks including Bangkok Bank, Barclays, BBVA, Bladex, BNP Paribas, Commerzbank, CTBC Bank, ING, Intesa Sanpaolo, Shinhan Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and Wells Fargo.
Together, the group is developing an end-to-end open account trade finance business network. This will be powered by TradeIX, and R3’s Corda distributed ledger platform.
The aim of the initiative is to upgrade the existing trade finance infrastructure to make it more reliable and efficient, as well as implement standardized processes for the entire sector.
