The financial services market continues to innovate with the announcement of a joint venture between two prominent players: HSBC, the London-based financial services organization serving more than 40 million customers, and Tradeshift, a leading B2B business commerce platform with customers operating in more than 190 countries. An agreement lays out plans to launch a new, jointly-owned business focused on the development of embedded finance solutions and financial services apps.
With a planned launch in early 2024, this new joint venture enables both organizations to deploy a range of digital solutions across Tradeshift and other platforms. Most notably, embedding payment and fintech services into trade, e-commerce, and marketplace experiences, as well as the ability for scaling Tradeshift’s business commerce proposition across the globe.
Christian Lanng, CEO and Co-founder of Tradeshift, emphasized the importance of the joining of forces between the world’s biggest trade bank and the world’s largest trade network. “Our deepening partnership with HSBC delivers a strong foundation from which to scale and accelerate our vision of a trade network that creates economic opportunity for businesses everywhere,” Lanng said.
“HSBC’s reputation and global infrastructure bring instant credibility and broad appeal to any financial solutions brought to market through the Tradeshift platform. It’s transformative, and it’s a tremendous validation of the innovation and product architecture we have developed over the past decade,” he added.
HSBC supports around 1.3 million businesses worldwide and is the world’s largest trade bank, facilitating over $800 billion of trade flows annually. As part of the agreement, HSBC will make a $35 million investment into Tradeshift in two stages and will join its board. The agreement is part of a funding round that is expected to raise a minimum of $70 million from HSBC and other investors.
Barry O’Byrne, CEO of Global Commercial Banking at HSBC, affirmed that enabling and growing global trade has been in HSBC’s DNA for almost 160 years. “We are very excited to partner with Tradeshift to help businesses and their suppliers trade more smoothly using world-class technology and solutions that the joint venture will deliver,” O’Byrne said.
“This agreement supports our strategy of being a digital-first bank, which includes our commitment to partnering with fintechs and embedding our solutions into the platforms of others,” he added.
With Tradeshift supporting over $260 billion of annual gross merchandise value for a million business users on its platform, the future of the partnership couldn’t be brighter. More details of the joint venture will be released as the launch date approaches.
