Standard Chartered has made a strategic investment in Chinese blockchain-enabled supply chain financing platform Linklogis. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The Linklogis platform provides large buyers with increased transparency on their entire chain of suppliers, and offers small and medium-sized suppliers cheaper and privileged access to credit.
Standard Chartered's investment comes a year after the pair signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop and deliver a supply chain financing proposition.
The bank says it plans to keep using Linklogis technology to provide large corporate buyers with greater visibility and transparency of their network of suppliers, as well as cheaper and easier access to financing for suppliers further upstream. In addition to offering these capabilities to onshore customers, the partners will explore extending the offering to support cross-border flows.
Benjamin Hung, regional CEO, Greater China and North Asia, Standard Chartered, says: "Our strategic investment into Linklogis not only allows us to better serve our clients by being a part of their integrated ecosystem, it also reinforces our efforts to support China’s opening by facilitating the flow of capital, particularly for the Greater Bay Area."