The trade and supply chain industry will see an unprecedented adoption of blockchain-enabled solutions in the foreseeable future, according to Samir Neji, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of #dltledgers, a blockchain-powered cross-border trade digitisation startup.
We are already witnessing these solutions being deployed at scale in key areas such as trade flows between countries and use cases such as track and trace or import/export digitisation.
“Many businesses are rethinking and reinventing their operational workflows to move away from manual processes and multi-channel communication towards collaboration and authentication for greater transparency and traceability,” Neji said in an email interview with e27.
As legal recognition of electronic transactions becomes more widespread in many jurisdictions, the utilisation of smart contracts is also expected to accelerate. Leveraging smart contracts allows businesses to enhance operational resilience and agility with trade flow automation.
“The consensus-driven smart contracts in a supply chain process more than halves the time spent on working on paper documentation. This allows effective coordination among those in the network and opens doors to broader access to financing and enabling faster product delivery,” he explained.
#dltledgers was founded in 2017 by serial technopreneur Neji. Its multi-enterprise supply chain business network (MESCBN) enables multi-party transactions across enterprises.
The platform helps corporates and banks to build on a connected supply chain. They can run end-to-end contract compliance and authenticate their commercial documents, subcontracts, logistics, reverse logistics, claims, financing and bank interactions. This enables them to automate multi-party transactions, streamline processes, and reduce costs.
The startup’s network participants include buyers, sellers, trading companies, banks and alternative lenders, carriers, logistics partners, insurers, ports, and various certifying bodies and government agencies.
Currently, #dltledgers works with 25 large enterprises and over 100 SMEs, including Mondalez, Tata Motors, ANZ bank, Wipro Consumer Goods, Shiseido, and Stockland.
Last month, #dltledgers secured US$8.5 million in a Series B funding from the family office of TATA Group and Centrum. The firm plans to extend the round to US$15 million and close it at the end of October.
“Our new investors understand the problem we are trying to solve and are bullish about it. These funds were looking for a scalable platform that can build large networks in MESCBN space and with an integrated capability to play across in fintech space. By investing in the MESCBN, these funds are also trying to diversify their investments,” he noted.
#dltledgers is already present in Southeast Asia, India, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and the Middle East. The firm will now forge ahead with its expansion plans into the North American and Japanese markets.
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