Trames, which has created a supply chain platform to connect players across the trade ecosystem, was named the winner of the 2020 edition of the GTR Ventures Tradetech Showcase, which took place as part of GTR Asia 2020.

 

Trames, the Singapore-based supply chain orchestration platform, won both the public and the judges’ votes thanks to the clarity of its value proposition. It was awarded US$10,000-worth of cloud credits by Amazon Web Services (AWS), as well as three hours of mentoring with Reefknot Investments and GTR Ventures.

“We are very happy to have won,” said Alok Rajiv, Trames CTO. “Some very interesting questions were asked during the session which were critical to us as a very young startup in the process of acquiring clients when it comes to understanding the general direction of the industry. The AWS credits will be

very valuable to us as a tech company, and we will be using the critical advice we get from Reefknot and GTRV to help us continue to grow and expand in the right manner.”

The four startups competing in the Tradetech Showcase all produced a short presentation, followed by a Dragons Den-style questions and answer session with a panel of judges including Dimitri Kouchnirenko, Industry Mentor, GTR Ventures; Marc Dragon, Managing Director of Reefknot Investments; Yasmina Izrar, Head of Marketing & Innovation, Asia Pacific at Coface and Lucas Chua, Startup Business Development ASEAN at Amazon Web Services.

To make their decision, the judges assigned points to each startup, measuring the expertise of the founders and team, the originality and scalability of the idea, its ability to be monetised, and the quality of the business model, technology and IP assets.

The judges hailed Trames’ clear presentation, which included a demonstration of the product, as well as its strong commercial potential, with a tiered pricing structure meant to cater to the needs of both large multinationals and regional SMEs. The company offers shippers a freight orchestration platform designed to improve collaboration with logistics partners through the sharing of track-and-trace data, business intelligence and customised analytics. The platform has already gone live with a Fortune 500 multinational corporation, and will be conducting a proof of concept (PoC) with a Japanese conglomerate in Q4, 2020. In the medium term, Trames plans to include value-added services like trade finance and invoice reconciliation to its platform.

Izrar, one of the judges, commented: “The competition was tough; we had the opportunity to see very promising initiatives especially in the supply chain. Even before the Covid-19 situation, supply chain resilience was a challenge for businesses of any size, with fragmented ecosystems, multiple players and manual processes. Trames, the winner, stood out thanks to a more structured business model and clear value proposition. I believe these key elements will help the team to bring this project to the next level.”

A notable mention was given to MineHub, a digital supply chain solution focused on the mining sector, for its single-sector approach. In his presentation, Arnoud Star Busmann, President and CEO of MineHub, described the company as a 21st century operating system focused on reducing the cost of compliance, improving access to capital and avoiding supply chain disruptions through digitised document processing. MineHub uses blockchain technology to decentralise the governance of commercially sensitive data, while keeping data owners in full control over access rights and residence of their data.

“We had a positive experience at the Tradetech Showcase. Now we will continue to work on building our product and getting it ready for release in November,” Busmann said after the winner was announced.

The other two startups, Carma and CargoChain, also received positive feedback from the judges during the verdict announcement by GTR Ventures CEO Rupert Sayer. “Carma is looking to solve a very real and pertinent problem in emerging and fragmented markets and it will be very interesting to see how they can bridge the gap in credit data in Africa. CargoChain has an extremely experienced management team which will definitely be able to further progress in the trade space in a meaningful manner,” Sayer noted.

Carma is a decentralised data sharing platform allowing companies to choose which data they want to share, and who they want to share it with. The firm currently has a presence in Nigeria, Zambia and Vietnam, and is hoping to fill a gap in regions where there is no reliable credit bureau.

Launched in January 2020, CargoChain is another data-sharing platform for the supply chain sector. In his presentation, CEO Jonathan Colehower explained that the company’s strength lies in its understanding of ocean cargo, independence and platform customisability.

 

The GTR Ventures Tradetech Showcase identifies the most relevant trade innovation trends and offers a platform for promising tradetech startups to pitch their ideas to potential mentors and investors. For the past three years, the Showcase has partnered with GTR Asia, the world’s largest trade finance event, ensuring maximum exposure for the shortlisted finalists. The third edition was held virtually on September 11, as part of GTR Asia 2020.