FINTECH attracts senior talents as investment ramps up in Asia Trade Finance centre

SINGAPORE,Sept. 27,2021 -- Leading hyper growth FINTECH in trade and supply chain finance #dltledgers has appointedSanjeev Chatrath as their new Chief Revenue Officer with over 25 years of experience in Financial Services,Data,and Information Technology Industries,consulting across Asia-Pacific and the MENA region. Based out of the company's Singapore headquarters,he will focus on building further product release and GTM across its 5 regions and execute on its planned geo expansion into Europe.

Sanjeev Chatrath - #dltledgers CRO

Sanjeev has held numerous senior leadership roles with multi-national firms including Citigroup,Standard Chartered Bank,Thomson Reuters,and IBM and has a proven track record of building,and leading diverse,high-performing teams while delivering pioneering solutions for many of world's leading Banks,Corporations and Non-Bank Financial Institutions. He is one of the top professionals in the finance sector and this adds to the growing numbers taking up leadership roles in FINTECHs.

The #dltledgers blockchain platform is a pioneer in trade and supply chain finance digitisation with its subscription based "plug-and-play" solution,having executed over S$4 billion worth of trade finance transactions,involving over 400+subscribedcustomers,45 banks,and 4500+ ecosystem and network partners. The company raised its Series A in early 2021 from global VCs and is on it path for a pre series B raise in Q4 this year.

Overall,FinTech companies in Singapore raised just over $1bn in the first six months of 2021 across 97 deals and investment is on track to surpass the funding amount seen in before the pandemic. Singapore has been on an upward trajectory with the annual funding growth rate rising above 47%. For the first half of 2021,Singapore FinTech companies already acquired 97 deals,as opposed to the 89 deals that was raised for the entire year of 2019. In 2021,out of the 66 deals with disclosed value,62 were below $50m. Comparing the deals from 2019 and H1 2021,there is a noticeable trend that more investors this year are willing to invest lower levels of funding compared tothe appetite for that type of transactionin 2019.

This increased funding in Singaporean fintech start-ups also points to the rising financial inclusion in Southeast Asia,with more players entering the digital finance system to cater to the large underbanked and unbanked population. In the Q1 of 2021 Fintech funding in Asia-Pacific surged to US$5.56 billion,more than double the same period last year. The figure puts the year 2021 well on track to surpass pre-COVID-19 levels during which Fintech in APAC raised a total of US$9.3 billion in 2019,according to a new report by S&P Global Market Intelligence.

#dltledgers had a fully subscribed Series A funding with a total of US$7 M. In 2021 close,backed by 2021 revenue growth on the north of 150% YoY,new product launches and volume growth,the company is raising its Pre Series B funding.

Apart from its current platform,the company has also expanded its platform into Corda,R3's flagship enterprise blockchain platform— enabling businesses in trade finance to streamline business operations,maintain inter-operability,while reducing transaction and record-keeping costs.

Over the past few months,#dltledgers has expanded rapidly with several global and regional bankers in senior roles,who have been hired to help power its growth engine,customer first strategy and innovation. The company's longer-term objective is to leverage on its massive trade data to create a more sophisticated framework for managing risk and liquidity within global trade and supply chain finance. Sanjeev joins in at an exciting time,where there are several initiatives across the globe.

Speaking on his appointmentSanjeev said,"I am excited about the tremendous potential of #dltledgers to address long-standing industry challenges by leveraging its distributed computing platform,and AI-based cognitive solutions to enable digitization of trade and supply chain financing. I am looking forward to work with banks and corporations around the world to promote a more sustainable future for everyone while improving their customer experience,financial performance,operational efficiency,and risk management. I look forward to spearhead the anticipated series B round of investment with the plans for a global expansion into Europe and North America and be a part of this hyper growth."

Farooq Siddiqi,CEO said,"Sanjeev is a great addition to our leadership team. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digitalization in all sectors,including international trade,which remains hindered by inefficient paper-intensive processes. In Q1 of 2021,#dltledgers have launched SmartFin which services SMEs,apart from its core business in Corporates,banks,ports,carriers and logistics frameworks. Its exciting times and we need more Senior FSI leaders to join FINTECHs in our growth stage. I am excited and with our new CRO,he will support our plan for 200% YoY in 2022".

The inter-enterprise blockchain technology of #dltledgers enables firms to capture multi party transactions in a most secure framework. Customers build smart contracts on the fly,authenticate,and share contract,trade data and documents linked to physical commodity cargoes,and supports the speedy and accurate validation,reconciliation and matching of the information exchanged between trading parties. This is serviced as an end-to-end one stop Trade Finance digitisation framework for banks,corporates,carriers,ports and all of logistics supply chain.

In 2020,the Singapore Trade Finance Registry was successfully Pilot run by 35+ banks on the #dltledgers blockchain platform. TradeDoc Validation was built for double finance and fraud prevention and released as a multi-bank framework which runs at the central bank or a central framework utility for individual banks. It is based on a collaboration established by the bank-led working group,and allows for real-time matching of title documents includingBills of Lading (BL),Letters of Indemnity (LOI),and Charter Party Bills of Lading (CPBL).

Banks have now sought to invoke tighter controls,increase transparency,and adopt new technology to avoid losses in this business. Under the leadership of Standard Chartered Bank and DBS Bank,this group has pioneered an industry-wide solution usingblockchain technology,which has been namedthe Trade Finance Registry,which was pilot run in dltledgers platform. The initiative involves 35+ banks,to name a few ABNAmroBank,Lloyds Bank,ANZ Bank,ICICI Bank,OCBC Bank,Natixis Bank,UOB Bank,Deutsche Bank,CIMB,and Rabobank,although as the project gains momentum others are waiting to be included. At the heart of this collaboration is the ability for each bank to validate whether or not another financial institution has already submitted a particular title instrument for financing purposes. Underpinned by blockchain,it is possible to share this data such that it does not violate client confidentiality and compliance rules,while still reducing the risk to the finance provider. This was successfully Pilot run in 2020 by dltledgers in Singapore.

"With our upcoming dltledgers 2.0 platform release in November 2021,our customers will be able to incorporate their own networks with ease and run end-to-end trade digitisation with connectivity across our 4500+ business partners. This will be a game changing moment for the industry," said Farooq Siddiqi,CEO.

About #dltledgers

#dltledgers is the leading,independent fintech platform for trade and supply chain digitisation and finance in blockchain. Based in Singapore,the multi-party transaction platform facilitates inter-enterprise collaboration,connecting the "digital islands'' across its value chain to create a trusted trade framework and supply chain ecosystem for its users,thus offering a risk model for lending. Network participants include buyers,sellers,trading companies,and banks and alternate lenders,as well as carriers,logistics partners,insurers,and a variety of certifying bodies and government agencies. #dltledgers blockchain platform is a pioneer in enterprise blockchain to go into full production and has executed S$4 billion worth of live trade finance transactions,involving over 400 subscribed customers,and 4500+ ecosystem partners.

The platform helps corporates and banks to authenticate their commercial documents,contracts and bank interactions,enabling them to automate multi-party transactions,stream-line processes and reduce costs. The net result is faster,more cost-effective trade execution,more robust,auditable collaboration between enterprises and often improved capacity to obtain financing.

www.dltledgers.sg