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Secro, the US-based technology company seeking to digitise documentation in global trade has secured $10 million in Series A funding as it attempts to modernise what remains a stubbornly paper-based industry.
“Trade finance remains reliant on outdated processes that increase fraud, delay transactions, and inflate capital costs,” said Michele Sancricca, Secro’s co-founder and chief executive.
The company has developed a blockchain-based platform that digitises and tokenises trade documents, aiming to reduce friction in the $20 trillion global trade finance sector. According to Secro, five of the world’s top 10 commodity traders are among its 130 enterprise clients: a significant validation, as large players in global trade are often amongst the slowest to transition from legacy systems.
The firm’s technology allows financial institutions, traders, carriers and insurers to issue digital versions of traditionally paper-based documents, with the aim of accelerating transactions and reducing risk. The company has already digitised shipments worth more than $1 billion.
Despite numerous initiatives to modernise trade finance, large parts of global commerce still rely heavily on physical documentation. An estimated 4 billion paper documents are produced annually, creating inefficiencies and opportunities for fraud. Secro is one of several companies attempting to address these issues through digitisation.
The company plans to establish its EMEA headquarters in Geneva, a significant hub for commodity trading and finance and home to Trafigura and Vitol. The new funding will be used to expand integrations with insurance carriers and lenders and develop its artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities for risk assessment and fraud detection.
