That’s according to a report Friday (Sept. 11) by Bloomberg News, which says the move comes after a difficult year for the previously hot inventory financing market.
Eliant is winding down products centered on mid-market accounts receivable and supply-chain finance, the report said, citing sources familiar with the matter. The strategy revolves around purchasing invoices and fronting supplier payments for companies seeking to trade products without tying up cash.
Eliant’s main business is inventory finance, or lending directly against companies’ stock of goods, some of the sources said. The initiatives being shut down make up less than 10% of Eliant’s total assets, the sources added.
Global asset manager Apollo and its insurance subsidiary Athene teamed with BNP Paribas to launch Eliant in 2022. The companies said at the time that Eliant offers companies “strategic and responsive inventory capital solutions to better optimize their supply chains and balance sheets and buffer inventories.”
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“Together with Athene, we have established Eliant to serve the growing market for flexible inventory and trade finance solutions, while helping our clients access high-quality, recurring asset origination,” said Apollo Partner Ephraim Rudman.
Since then, the Bloomberg report added, trade finance has faced increased scrutiny following multiple high-profile collapses, including that of First Brands last year.
PYMNTS wrote last month that trade finance is “stuck in a paradox,” as the world has plenty of goods to trade, but financing them safely is getting harder and harder to do.
“That gap is now FinTechs’ opening to challenge banks,” the report said. “As tariffs shift faster, shipping routes become less reliable and supply chains reorganize around geopolitical risk, financing the movement of goods is becoming inseparable from managing the uncertainty surrounding those goods.”
Meanwhile, the boundary between commercial trade finance and industrial policy is becoming blurred, the report added.
FinTechs already have an opening in the cross-border commerce marketplace, as research from PYMNTS Intelligence and Mastercard have shown.
The report “The Cross-Border Opportunity: What Global Sourcing by US SMBs Means for Payment Providers” found that 36% of internationally active small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in the United States expected to use FinTechs or payment providers for cross-border purchases this year, up from 30% in 2025.
“Banks still hold the largest position, as 64% of internationally active SMBs used traditional banks for cross-border supplier payments in 2025, and 69% expect to use them in 2026,” PYMNTS wrote.
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