Supply chain finance firm Tradeshift raises $200 mln

Dec 9 (Reuters) – Supply chain finance group Tradeshift has secured more than $200 million in funding and debt from new and existing investors, including industrial conglomerate Koch Industries, a company statement showed on Thursday.

The funding round gives San Francisco-based Tradeshift a valuation of more than $2 billion, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The company, whose cloud-based platform helps buyers and suppliers digitise invoice processing, automate accounts payable workflows and scale quickly, declined to comment on the valuation. In 2018 Tradeshift had said its valuation was $1.1 billion when it announced a $250 million funding round.

Tradeshift, which counts American Express Ventures, HSBC (HSBA.L), Goldman Sachs (GS.N) and Wipro Digital amongst its investors, recently saw the cumulative value of transactions processed across its network pass the $1 trillion mark, having doubled in two years.

“A portion of the capital will be used to refinance parts of our balance sheet focusing us on long term continued growth” Tradeshift founder and Chief Executive Christian Lanng told Reuters via e-mail.

Trade and supply chain finance, where lenders pay a company’s suppliers on the company’s behalf in exchange for a fee and repayment at a later date, has boomed during the coronavirus pandemic.

Investment funds have also been providing more and more capital to finance these transactions, as they hunt for yield in a record low interest rate environment.

However, the collapse of British supply chain finance company Greensill in March has raised investor concerns on some of the risks involved and in some cases, the sector’s lack of transparency.

Reporting by Muvija M in Bengaluru
Editing by Rachel Armstrong

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