Marco Polo lowers barriers to entry for blockchain trade finance

Removing the gatekeeper charge lowers the barriers to entry but also to exit. Although the financial commitment may be lower, TradeIX has automation features which can require integration on the banking side. The pay off for that integration effort is the future time and cost savings, members have agreed.

Because TradeIX licenses a large part of the software, Marco Polo banks don’t have to commit such large sums of money to join. And those licensing costs are shared by a growing number of members. As examples of other trade finance networks, in the case of we.trade the minimum shareholder commitment was EUR 572,000 although it now offers licenses and komgo shareholders invested EUR 1 million each. Instead for TradeIX, it’s a matter of paying for any custom development, monthly licensing fees, and transaction fees.

In 2019, TradeIX raised a USD 16 million Series A round, led by ING Ventures and including investment from BNP Paribas. Both banks are members of Marco Polo as well as the komgo and Voltron trade finance networks.