Olea and Vayana Network partner to offer cross border trade finance solutions in India
by Prashant Kapadia/NHN
India, May , 2022: Olea Global Pte. Ltd., a digitised supply chain platform that empowers sustainable trade, and Vayana Network, India’s largest trade finance platform have announced a partnership which plans to provide exporters and importers in India with timely access to alternative liquidity.
Over the past few years, there has been growing interest in India as a manufacturing hub, as large multi-national corporations seek to diversify their global supply chains. In order to meet this increasing demand, businesses in India – especially micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs) – have been looking for quicker access to sources of capital. Traditional lenders tend to have lengthy and opaque documentation processes which make it hard to access this capital. In fact, World Bank estimated that Indian MSMEs alone account for a $380 billion credit gap.
Sharing his views, Ram Iyer, Founder and CEO, Vayana Network, said, “The Government, through its “Make in India” program and Production Linked Incentives (PLIs), is offering incentives for Indian manufacturing to become more globally competitive. Combined with the ITFS (International Trade Finance Services) platform and our other cross border offerings, we aim to provide a wide array of trade finance solutions to businesses. The partnership with Olea complements our vision of connecting the smallest of businesses with the largest of lenders.”
The partnership will initially focus on making export finance readily available for small and mid-sized exporters. It will address the clear need for products which offer straightforward and fast access to capital. The synergies from the relationship between Olea and Vayana will bring together their unique offerings and provide a focus on long-term value. Olea brings its extensive structuring capability, state-of-the-art technology platform and extensive access to funding from alternative investors globally. On the other hand, Vayana is deeply entrenched in the Indian ecosystem and can leverage its close relationships with corporates in India to provide financing solutions.
Letitia Chau, Deputy CEO of Olea said: “Olea is passionate about bringing a fresh pool of international capital into the trade and supply chain finance market in India, specifically for small and medium-sized businesses. Indian MSMEs alone account for 45% of national exports and the value they contribute to the economy increases by around 12% per year. Addressing the credit gap for MSMEs directly impacts their ability to provide employment, among other things. Hence, the collaboration with Vayana strongly aligns with our desire to empower sustainable trade.”
About Olea: Olea is a digitised supply chain platform that brings together businesses requiring supply chain financing with investors interested in trade finance assets as an alternative asset class. The platform provides a radically transparent, fast and hassle-free way to access working capital online. Olea is a joint venture between Standard Chartered and Linklogis. Standard Chartered brings its international trade expertise in 60 countries over 160 years, unparalleled expertise in risk analytics on 50k+ corporate clients (including MNC buyers and SME suppliers) and, commitment to sustainability and net zero emissions by 2030. Linklogis is a leading supply chain technology solution provider in China with >20% market share, the largest receivables asset originator in China with USD 20bn annual throughput, and is backed by reputable investors including GIC, BlackRock, Sequoia and Tencent. Olea is uniquely positioned to reinvent trade finance and be a force for good to drive meaningful impact in the global economy.
About Vayana Network: Vayana Network is India’s largest Supply Chain Finance platform, having enabled finance of over USD 10 Billion to over 1.5 lakh MSMEs for over 1000 supply chains in 25 different sectors. With its proprietary technology, Vayana has processed over 2 million transactions and offers a zero-change experience to customers. The network today spans across 600 cities and 1400+ pin codes in India and extends to 20 countries across the globe. The company is increasingly catering to the smallest of MSMEs in the long tail of the supply chains. Vayana is also one of the largest GSP (GST Suvidha Provider) in the country, facilitating, GST, E-Way bill and E-invoice for numerous corporates and SMEs. The GSP platform has seen over 3 billion API calls in GST and e-invoicing, with zero downtime. Since its launch, 1 in 5 e-invoices have been generated through Vayana. In 2021, Vayana received in-principle approval to set up ITFS (International Trade Finance Services) platform at GIFT City (Gujarat) under the aegis of the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA).
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