Digital trade finance platform 360tf, which connects banks and businesses across the world to help them manage their letter of credit (L/C) financing requirements, has raised US$1.5 million within five months of going live.

The Dubai based firm aims to disrupt the traditional ways of arranging L/C financing for these stakeholders by creating a digital platform.

Benefits

"From chasing multiple banks and relentlessly following up for a single quote to availing real-time quotes from multiple banks after initiating a transaction, 360tf has completely reimagined trade finance and provided organisations with unprecedented access to the most competitive rates directly improving their bottom line," claims co-founder Nisarg Dugad.

The firm hopes it platform will bring market efficiency to what it perceives to be a largely offline, ad-hoc, and unstructured aspect of trade financing as well benefits including non-recourse financing and low single digit interest rates.

Growing ambitions

In its first five months trading the firm says it has written gross transaction value of US$125 million and built a user base of more than 110 corporates from seven countries with an annual turnover of US$10 billion.

The firm operates a flat pricing structure and claims it has more halved turnaround time for customers that process more than 50 L/Cs a month. "They have realised significant gains in terms of time, effort, cost-savings, and operational efficiency by using the 360tf platform," according to CEO and co-founder Vikram Lodha.

This article represents the views of the author and not necessarily those of the ICC or Coastline Solutions.