Tradeshift Raises $250 Million In Series E Funding Round, Bringing Company Valuation to $1.1 Billion Last week, we launched the first cloud-based platform for
connected supply chain payments. And we made news as the first platform of its kind to include blockchain-based finance in a single unified wallet of early payment options. This week, we have Goldman Sachs and Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) putting their money on Tradeshift as the leader in the category of supply chain payments and
marketplaces. As always, our vision has been to connect more companies and enable them to do business together with less friction. Our mission is to drive supply chain innovation for the digitally connected economy. Getting there is never easy; we’ve been at it for 8 years: starting humbly in an actual garage in Denmark (lesson learned: don’t do it in winter), then getting our first global office, to scaling to a global company with offices in 14 countries serving customers and users in more than 190. That’s why I’m proud to announce our latest round of financing, including new partnerships with investors such as Goldman Sachs and PSP Investments. Additional participation for this funding round comes from HSBC, H14, GP Bullhound, and Gray Swan, a new venture company established by Tradeshift’s founders. The new round of financing brings our total funding to more than $400 million. Company valuation is now at $1.1 billion. The new investors join existing backers, including HSBC, American Express Ventures, the CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund, Notion Capital, Santander InnoVentures, and others. Mikkel Hippe Brun, Tradeshift’s GM of China and Co-Founder, will join Tradeshift’s board of directors.
A welcome validation At Tradeshift, when we say supply chain we don’t just mean direct materials. We mean everything that happens between a buyer and a seller. We have always believed that the future of supply chains is 100 percent digital and that connecting trade is essential to the economy. The more companies that can easily connect to global supply chains, the more we can drive global diversity and opportunity. With Tradeshift Pay, you can finally connect supply chain payments and finance in a single unified wallet, for the first time bringing Accounts Payable, Treasury, Finance and the CFO on the same platform. So it is easier than ever to manage and optimize working capital. With Tradeshift Buy, you can bring procurement to the marketplace age with the ability to run and manage your own private online marketplaces. And with Tradeshift Apps, you get a cloud platform and the ability to extend, customize or create your supply chain solution with apps. This is one of the biggest opportunities in the world today. B2B e-commerce is projected to grow from $891bn to $1.2tn just in the US over the next five years and buying behavior is changing fast in the enterprise. Whether enterprise buyers use classic procurement systems or next-generation marketplaces to make purchases, that trade needs to be facilitated. That’s why some of the largest companies in the world come to Tradeshift. We welcome Goldman Sachs and PSP Investments as our newest investors and we’re thrilled to receive the validation of our vision.
Everything digital, everything connected, everything apps We will use this funding round to double down on the investments we most strongly believe will create differentiators for the future of supply-chains and business commerce, Blockchain, AI, and Platform As A Service (PaaS). Why? Everyone gets that the future will be networked and that everything will be apps. It’s one of the reasons why blockchain seems to be getting so much traction lately. Blockchain is also a part of the digital zeitgeist, both a driver of and response to a global demand for greater trust and transparency. The bigger idea is one we have been true to for 8 years: supply chains of the future must run on a fully digitized platform of networked apps. Our
Frontiers division, launched in January 2018, is focused on enabling supply chain applications for blockchain and other emerging technologies. With AI, it’s all about the user experience. Digital means more data, but that data is useless if users can’t ask natural questions, get smart answers, and do both in a frictionless, organic way. To that end, we’ll be investing in Tradeshift Ada, our AI layer. Finally, there’s networked PaaS, which in supply chain terms means a network of buyers and sellers using a connected network of apps to do business around the world. Called “multi-enterprise grid functionality” by Gartner, the technology was
cited as being “on the rise” as far back as 2015. While Tradeshift was founded on this technology, the world is catching up and even Gartner gets it now. Needless to say, we will continue to focus on helping drive mainstream adoption of networked PaaS for supply chains.
Joining forces and moving forward We’ll also use this funding round for core strategic initiatives, including continued global expansion of Tradeshift in Europe and Asia and growth of transacted volume and value across our platform. As for mergers and acquisitions, we’re going to consolidate to win. There are currently a number of M&A moves that would serve both our vision and our strategy. In short, it’s a pretty exciting month at Tradeshift. Our combination of bold innovation and fast commercial growth gives us a differentiating position in the market. The market expects us to be a market leader, and the momentum is going to continue. We have another exciting announcement coming down the pike–so check this space. And then it’s back to work.
About the Author
Christian is the CEO and Co-founder of Tradeshift. Christian started his first technology company at age 19 and was the youngest Head of Division in the Danish Government, National IT and Telecom Agency. Christian is a recognized thought leader and Fortune 500 advisor, as well as a member of the Global Agenda Council on the Future of IT Software and Services, World Economic Forum. He frequently keynotes conferences on topics such as digital disruption and business agility, and supply chain sustainability.
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