Standard Chartered and Chinese blockchain-enabled supply chain financing platform Linklogis have formed a joint venture to build a trade finance origination and distribution platform.
Called Olea, the fully-digitised platform aims to bring together institutional investors seeking opportunities in an alternative asset class with businesses requiring supply chain financing.
Headquartered in Singapore, Olea will be led by SC Ventures' Amelia Ng, with Linklogis' Letitia Chau as deputy CEO.
Standard Chartered made a strategic investment in Linklogis in January 2020.
The partners say that Olea will offer investors access to investment options for returns that align with their risk profiles, while providing a "radically transparent, speedier and hassle-free way" to access working capital for supply chain participants regardless of size.
Says Ng: "By marrying Standard Chartered’s international trade and risk management expertise and unparalleled knowledge of Asia, Africa and the Middle East with Linklogis’ innovations in supply chain technology, Olea is uniquely positioned to reinvent trade finance and be a force for good."