Tradeshift is the latest company to pick up an investment from Santander InnoVentures, the fintech-based venture capital fund run by Santander Group. The new capital will help Tradeshift develop its supply-chain finance platform and add to the company’s B2B marketplace.
Terms of the investment were not disclosed. Tradeshift had raised more than $190 million in total capital ahead of this week’s investment, with its latest infusion of capital a $75 million funding round led by Data Collective from this summer.
Calling Santander “a natural fit,” Tradeshift CEO and Chairman Christian Lanng praised the Spanish bank for its history of collaborating and partnering with its portfolio companies. “We are excited by the opportunities this investment will create to explore new offerings and different geographies around the world,” Lanng said. Santander InnoVentures’ managing partner Mariano Belinky said Tradeshift is “at the forefront of tackling a very real business need” and using innovative technology to do so.
“Tradeshift has built an open business network on a scalable cloud-first platform that is extensible by third-party applications,” Belinky explained. “This architecture is a key differentiator. As a result, the potential to provide complimentary and added-value services around the Tradeshift platform is particularly powerful.
The investment news comes just days after Tradeshift announced the launch of a pair of new joint ventures in China. The initiatives are designed to help meet the country’s growing demand for supply-chain digitalization and feature partnerships with Shenzhen XunLian Technology Development Company in Chongqing, and Chinese tax-related services provider, Baiwang. “Our platform vision puts both buyers and their suppliers at the center of our value proposition,” Tradeshift SVP of Asia Pacific, Mikkel Hippe Brun said during the joint venture announcement. “(It) is proving to be a natural fit in China’s trade ecosystem as it is everywhere else,” Brun said. Earlier this fall, the company announced expansion to Australia and New Zealand, and was named to Battery Ventures/Glassdoor’s 50 Highest Rated Private Cloud Companies to Work For. In June, Tradeshift introduced its B2B virtual assistant for managing business and travel expenses, Go.
Founded in 2010 and headquartered in San Francisco, Tradeshift demonstrated the Instant Payments feature of its platform at FinovateEurope 2012. Tradeshift’s platform links 800,000 companies across 190 countries.