Aussie fintech wins Barclays’ global “Open Innovation Challenge 2018”

Trade finance technology startup Trade Ledger™ finished ahead of nine other VC-backed companies from across the world to be named the winner of the Barclays UK Ventures Open Innovation Challenge 2018 in London.

The ten finalists were hand-picked by Barclays due to their potential to offer game-changing business solutions across a variety of industries, however Trade Ledger came out on top because of the way it completely transforms processes in business lending, through its world-first technology platform. Ben Davey, CEO of Barclays UK Ventures, said:

“Within Barclays UK Ventures, we’re looking for companies we can partner with to develop and deliver transformational products and services.”

He added: “We chose Trade Ledger™ as they have re-imagined the lending process by improving the processes through automation and opening up lending opportunities to a larger client base, which fully aligns to our Shared Growth ambition.”

The competition involved a face-to-face pitch by each of the 10 finalists to Barclays’ technology leadership team. Other finalists hailed from high-tech industries such as AI security, recruitment CRM and marketing automation, process mining software, application performance management, IoT, chatbots, and robotic process automation platform creation.

The event served as a means for Barclays to gain access to some of the most advanced technologies being developed from across the globe. Sean Duffy, Managing Director of Technology Media and Telecoms in Barclays Corporate Banking Division, said:

“These events are a great way for us to uncover solutions that will materially improve our business and the solutions we offer to customers and clients.”

He continued: “This is the first time we’ve hosted this event in the UK, which is a testament to the growing strength and depth of VC-backed companies in our home market.”

Gaining international exposure through competitions such as this one is an important aspect of Trade Ledger™’s “born global” strategy, designed to tackle the £1.2 trillion under-supply of business credit globally.

Martin McCann, CEO and founder of Trade Ledger™, said:

“We are delighted that Barclays has chosen the Trade Ledger business lending platform as the winner of this global challenge.”

He said: “It was an incredible opportunity to be able to present our tech and strategy for helping banks address the massive under-supply of business credit, to such a large and diverse group of the bank’s technology leaders.

“We believe the platform will help Barclays accelerate their transformation into data-driven lending, and that our selection proves the unique value of the Trade Ledger platform to support the bank’s innovation and growth ambitions.”

Further discussions on a partnership with Barclays are ongoing, and will help Trade Ledger™ prove product market fit within tier 1 banks globally.

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