TradeIX: Impact 25 2018 profile
March 10, 2018
This is a summary of the profile which first appeared in the Oxbow Partners InsurTech Impact 25: 2018.
TradeIX provides infrastructure and solutions that enable parties to connect to the broader trade finance market more easily, flexibly and efficiently.
The platform uses permission-based distributed ledger technology. Companies that place their invoices on the platform give real-time visibility to parties to manage customer terms and risk. All invoice details (including eligible insured amounts) are stored on the ledger. Invoices are sold to funding providers and credit is insured by insurance partners.
“By using this blockchain-enabled platform, clients are able to benefit from the extended ecosystem that trade finance brings, but with a reduction in friction and cost and an improvement in speed and transparency.”
Marilyn Blattner-Hoyle Head of Supply Chain and Trade Finance, AIG
Impact
$40 trillion: Current volume for trade finance
$8 trillion: Current volume for open-account trade
$3 trillion: Receivables on corporate balance sheets
770 million: Processed invoices electronically for B2B and B2G in Europe in 2015
Case Study One
Client situation: A Fortune 500 logistics company wanted to combine their core offering with a trade finance solution that permitted extended payment terms for specific clients.
What they did: TradeIX developed a blockchain-based trade finance platform, with finance provided by Standard Chartered and credit insurance provided by AIG. The company was able to place invoices on the TradeIX platform, providing real time visibility to manage customer terms and credit risks.
Impact: The Fortune 500 logistics company increased payment terms for its clients while improving their own working capital.
Case Study Two
Client situation: Member banks of the R3 network asked R3 and TradeIX to help them implement new solutions for their trade finance ecosystem using R3 Corda distributed ledger technology. The consortium wanted to cut back-office costs, eliminate operational friction, reduce fraud and compliance risk and open up new revenue streams.
What they did: TradeIX and R3 created Project Marco Polo as a joint undertaking, together with many of the world’s foremost financial institutions.
Impact: The solution was an end-to-end open account trade platform powered by Corda distributed ledger technology. The platform consists of pre and post-shipment trade finance solutions including APIs and microservices and specific applications and core technology infrastructure.
The Oxbow Partners View
Traction: The business aims to create the leading trade finance infrastructure platform connecting banks, insurers, buyers, sellers and other parties to any transaction. With over twelve major banks (e.g. BNP Paribas, Commerzbank) signed up to their Marco Polo JV with blockchain consortium R3, TradeIX is well on its way.
Potential: TradeIX has been set up by a team of trade finance all-stars including the founder of PrimeRevenue, a leading supply chain finance provider. With its early traction, we see that it has potential to become the prominent trade finance platform ahead of some other challengers.
The 2018 challenge: TradeIX needs to move from testing and development to full implementations and scale in 2018. To do that it will need to onboard multiple institutions.