ASB Bank Participates In TradeWindow’s $1.7M Seed Round

With a repeat investment in TradeWindow, Commonwealth Bank of Australia-owned ASB Bank participated in a NZ$2.67 million ($1.76 million) seed funding round for the blockchain company. ASB made an investment of a “significant” amount during the summer and is said to own 21 percent of the firm, Yahoo Finance reported on Monday (Dec. 16).

Nigel Annett, executive general manager of business banking at ASB, said per the report, “ASB supported and invested in TradeWindow early on because we could see the opportunity and the need to simplify the export process, while also providing a secure platform to share relevant information and documentation.”

TradeWindow seeks to commercially rollout its trade finance platform, which is based on the blockchain, with its new capital. The company reportedly claims that it helps users save money by sharing trade data via a single platform. AJ Smith, TradeWindow founder and CEO, said per the report that the platform has been “thoroughly” piloted and is very near its commercial rollout.

In August, news surfaced that ASB Bank had backed TradeWindow with funds that will aid the startup’s ongoing development of a trade platform powered by distributed ledger technology. Financial details of the acquisition were not made known per past reports; however, Annett said at the time that the bank would take a “significant” stake in TradeWindow.

Annett said in a statement at the time, “What began as collaboration through ASB’s innovation program to solve a customer problem is now a fully-fledged business ready to launch. TradeWindow has the potential to truly transform the way our customers experience the international trade process. By digitizing the trade process, businesses will be able to operate more efficiently with trust and security across the globe.”

According to Smith, as noted in the past report, the platform is designed to tackle the growing risk of cyberattacks in supply chains and global trade, as well as to address the friction associated with sharing documentation and data across trading partners.