Santander, Tradeshift Plan Joint Supply Chain Finance Offering

Santander has announced a worldwide partnership with San Francisco-based startup Tradeshift that is to see the companies launch a joint supply chain finance offering in the UK later this year.

Tradeshift, founded in 2010, makes a cloud-based platform used by large companies to keep track of their entire supply chain, which can involve thousands of suppliers.

Digital supply chain

More than 1.5 million businesses are on the network, which the company says handles tens of billions of dollars each month. Its capabilities include electronic invoicing, document matching and early payment features.

The supply chain finance offering will provide links to Santander financing directly from the electronic invoicing provided across Tradeshift’s platform, extending the bank’s access to lower-level, smaller companies and speeding up its processes.

On average Tradeshift says companies have been able to use the platform to digitise 70 to 80 percent of their supply chains.

Working capital is the cash suppliers use to fund the execution of contracts and orders.

Santander, the eurozone’s largest bank, said its aim is to be able to offer financing for each transaction within the supply chain, an idea echoed by Tradeshift chief executive Christian Lanng.

“Together with Santander, we are enabling every supplier — big or small — to more easily access cash,” Lanng said in a statement.

UK launch

The deal is intended to be the first offering in a broad range of digitally enabled working capital products offered by Santander and Tradeshift, the bank said.

“Our joint efforts bring greater speed, simplicity, full digitisation, savings and greater efficiency to a whole package of financial services propositions,” stated José Luis Calderón, Santander’s global head of global transaction banking.

The offering is set to launch in the UK at the beginning of the fourth quarter of this year before rolling out in other countries.

Tradeshift formed a similar agreement with HSBC earlier this year, and received funding from Santander’s venture capital arm in December.

Large banks have made growing investments in high-tech startups in recent months in order to tap into emerging financial-sector technologies such as blockchain.

Why not test your knowledge of European tech pioneers and the EU’s contribution to the industry?Try our quiz!