- The partnership leverages SWIAT’s Tokenisation Engine and Olea’s expertise in trade receivables financing
- The fintechs enable supply chain finance through tokenising a receivables claim
- With this partnership, SWIAT increases its international footprint and demonstrates the manifold application opportunities of its blockchain software in another flagship project
- Both fintechs are part of the SC Ventures ecosystem, Standard Chartered’s innovation, fintech investment and ventures arm
Frankfurt am Main, Singapore, 19 Sept 2024 – SWIAT GmbH (“SWIAT”), a fintech company specialising in the development of blockchain software for an open, decentralised financial market infrastructure, and Olea, a digital infrastructure platform that channels global liquidity to support supply chain and trade assets, today announced a collaboration to enable fully digitalised supplier financing on the blockchain. Backed by SC Ventures, Standard Chartered’s innovation, fintech investment and ventures arm, SWIAT and Olea are expanding their international reach with the partnership, particularly in the highly innovative financial hubs of Singapore and Frankfurt.
In preparation for financing, Olea tokenised receivables arising from a supplier’s delivery of goods. SWIAT provided its blockchain infrastructure and software, which was designed to conform to capital market, compliance and regulatory requirements like incoming Basel III (SCO60). Olea operates a digital infrastructure platform that matches supplier’s financing needs with funders. The funder for the inaugural tokenised receivable is DekaBank, one of the joint-venture partners in SWIAT. The project leveraged SWIAT’s Tokenisation Engine and Olea’s expertise in trade receivables financing.
The market for trade finance is estimated to be worth at least US 10 trillion annually, according to the World Trade Organisation. Supply Chain (Trade) Finance solutions offer companies a way to optimise working capital by extending payment terms to suppliers while ensuring timely payments. Trade finance is considered to be a particularly safe form of finance, as it is underwritten by predictable collateral and documented operational flows.
Gurdeep Singh Kohli, SC Ventures Lead for Europe and Americas said: “At SC Ventures, we are continuously exploring business models to rewire the DNA in Banking. This partnership is a great example of our ecosystem coming together to support international trade by tokenising financial assets. SWIAT enables Olea to issue digital assets, while Olea addresses the challenges of the global economy by tapping into alternative funding sources from institutional base investors. We look forward to supporting future use cases within our ecosystem of ventures.“
Dr. Timo Reinschmidt, SWIAT Co-CEO and CCO, said: “This transaction represents another milestone in the still young company history of SWIAT. It not only demonstrates the broad field of application and the global potential of the SWIAT software, but is also an expression of the successful cooperation between two fintechs, both of which count SC Ventures among their owners and thus have the best prerequisites for successful joint projects in the future. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Olea.“
Amelia Ng, Olea CEO, added: “We are thrilled to announce this fruitful collaboration between SWIAT and Olea. This partnership aims to digitalise supplier financing using blockchain technology, bringing transparency, security, and efficiency to the process. By leveraging blockchain, we will streamline transactions, reduce costs, and enhance trust among all stakeholders. This innovative approach will empower suppliers with faster access to financing, thereby driving growth and sustainability within the supply chain ecosystem.”
SWIAT’s vision is to create a single global standard for processing blockchain-based securities. A key feature of the SWIAT ecosystem is that capital market, compliance and regulatory aspects are considered in the conception phase, thereby offering security and compatibility with regulatory requirements.
SWIAT forecasts digital assets to grow in importance globally in the coming years as tokenisation increases. In Europe, SWIAT estimates that an open decentralised financial market will grow more than 60 per cent per year (CAGR) to more than €3 trillion by 2030.
About SC Ventures
SC Ventures is a business unit that provides a platform and catalyst for Standard Chartered to promote innovation, invest in disruptive financial technology and explore alternative business models. For more information, please visit www.scventures.io and follow SC Ventures on LinkedIn.
About SWIAT
SWIAT is a 2022 founded Frankfurt-based FinTech that develops blockchain-software for an open decentralised financial market infrastructure. As a settlement network, the blockchain-based transaction platform is available to banks and financial institutions and enables them to issue regulated digital assets. As an open platform and international network, SWIAT aims to become a settlement standard in this area. SWIAT shareholders are DekaBank, LBBW, Standard Chartered and the fintech Comyno. https://www.swiat.io/
About Olea
Olea is a digital infrastructure platform that channels global liquidity to support supply chain and trade assets. Olea was incubated within SC Ventures. Olea builds trust in trade finance. We adopt robust risk management and governance that is compatible with international financial institutions; we innovate the delivery of trade finance as an asset class to access wider, alternative liquidity pools, and we leverage advanced technology to remove the friction in trade finance. Olea’s vision is to empower sustainable trade. We have a strong conviction in the role of trade to support sustainable economic development across countries, particularly emerging markets in Asia, Middle East and Africa where many smaller suppliers are based. Olea supports suppliers and buyers across 35 countries. https://olea.net/
Press Contact SWIAT
Charles Barker Corporate Communications
Dr Tobias Anslinger, Hans Bielefeld
Fon +49 69/79 40 90 -41/-44, press@swiat.io
Press Contact Olea Global Pte Ltd
Brian Lavery, Chief of Staff
Mobile +65 8949 8655, brian.lavery@olea.net
