Santander Group’s global VC fund, Santander InnoVentures, has invested in business commerce and supply chain finance platform Tradeshift. The investment will be used to further broaden Tradeshift’s capabilities, and grow the ecosystem surrounding its B2B marketplace.
San Francisco-based Tradeshift is currently used by a range of Fortune 500 companies including DHL and Zurich Insurance Group as well as many large institutions such as the National Health Service. The company said it generated a 250% growth rate in 2015 for its procure-to-pay capabilities, faster payments services and predictable cash flow solutions.
Christian Lanng, CEO and Chairman at Tradeshift, called Santander InnoVentures a “natural fit”.
“Santander has a track record of collaborating with its portfolio businesses,” said Lanng. “We are excited by the opportunities this investment will create to explore new offerings and different geographies around the world.”
Mariano Belinky, Managing Partner, Santander InnoVentures, described Tradeshift as being at the forefront of tackling a serious business need.
“Tradeshift has built an open business network on a scalable cloud-first platform that is extensible by third-party applications. This architecture is a key differentiator. As a result, the potential to provide complementary and added value services around the Tradeshift platform is particularly powerful,” said Belinky.
Tradeshift and Santander are currently exploring opportunities to apply the Tradeshift platform to the benefit of Santander’s corporate and business customers.