GTR Ventures, a global trade and supply chain investor, has inked three new deals with Fintech firms: Lucidity, iLoan and RM-Tech. According to GTR, these investments represent a pivot towards markets in China and South Asia. The investments were announced on the first day of the Singapore Fintech Festival, the world’s largest Fintech gathering. Specific deal terms of the three investments were not released.
Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief Fintech Officer of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), commented on the announcement saying Asia is going through a digital transformation let by Fintech entrepreneurs.
“I welcome GTR Ventures’ recent investee companies to our ecosystem, and look forward to greater financial inclusion for SMEs in this region.”
Lucidity is described as a trade finance documentation solution provider that employs automation and machine learning to boost efficiencies in a sector of finance that is largely an analog process today.Lucidity is also backed by PSA unboXed, the corporate venture capital arm of Singapore’s global port operator PSA International.
iLoan is said to provide blockchain solutions for loans to SMEs, wholesalers and distributors. Its tech is designed to allow lenders to reduce invoice fraud, lower processing costs and have efficient traceability of each transaction. iLoan is a part of John Keells X -Sri Lanka’s largest business conglomerate, which is a startup accelerator designed to support early-stage startups.
Fintech RM-Tech works with banks, corporates, and business-to-business (B2B) portals to enable a multi-channel payments as well as clearing and settlement services. Currently connected to seven banks in China, RM-Tech claims over 300 Chinese customers and processes over RMB 100mn of transactions each month.
Kelvin Tan, CIO of GTR Ventures, said these latest investments align with their vision of creating a compelling network effect of Fintech solutions in the global trade and supply chain sector. Tan and his partners see value in funding Fintechs that cater to both banks and non-banks as well as busineses.
“Be it geographical reach, loan products, operational efficiency, settlements or asset distribution, we are on track to tackling different parts of the transactional value chain with a view to deepening financial inclusion for exporters and SMEs globally.”
GTR Ventures operates out of London, Singapore, and Hong Kong. GTR Ventures focuses on four main investment areas: transaction banking (trade finance, treasury & cash); trade insurance & risk management; SME finance & supply chain; and physical trade.
