Singapore blockchain startup dltledgers has launched SmartFin to enable micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to access trade finance from alternative financers as opposed to banks. Four hundred companies have already signed up, according to dltledgers.
Dltledgers already has a blockchain solution that has provided several billion in financing by banks such as Standard Chartered and DBS, particularly for the commodities sector.
The SmartFin solution is similar to fellow Singapore blockchain trade finance startup Triterras, which also accesses alternative sources of finance. Nasdaq listed Triterras was valued at more than a billion dollars at one point but is now worth less than $400 million.
In contrast, dltledgers recently raised a more modest $7 million.
The aim of SmartFin is to further digitize trade and help MSMEs to access trade finance where they might be currently struggling. Dltledgers listed some of its funding sources as TradeFlow Capital Management, Drip Capital, Funding Societies, Crowd-Genie, Stenn International, Capital Match and others. While TradeFlow Capital has its investment funds, several of the other companies are solution providers that provide marketplaces for borrowers and investors similar to SmartFin. In the early stages of the SmartFin solution, that makes sense.
“We feel confident that both the borrowers and lenders will see the benefit of increased digitization in the financing process, with lower financing costs for the borrowers and increased transparency for the lenders,” said dltledgers CEO Farooq Siddiqi.
