Digital trade company GUUD has launched a new trade finance platform targeted at small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore who are battling to access financing. 

Called Ryte, the platform allows companies to apply for financing with any of the 10 banks and other financial institutions that have partnered with GUUD so far. 

The platform consists of two parts, Ryteloan and RyteTFAP. The second is the new name of the company’s existing CamelONE financing platform which is available through Singapore’s Networked Trade Platform’s document repository.  

The platform will facilitate financing such as documentary trade and supply chain finance, letters of credit, shipment financing and working capital.

Desmond Loh, chief executive of GUUD Finance, says the company has tried to make the platform as simple and “intuitive” as possible for small businesses who struggle with the time and costs involved in finance applications.  

“Applications for trade finance on a transactional level used to be tedious, cumbersome and to be honest it didn’t pay a lot,” Loh said at a July 8 virtual launch event. “And as a result we were just left with a huge amount of paperwork. Our idea here is that trade finance is the lifeblood of any economy.”

Loh also said the new platform, which has been under development for two years, will be fuelled with data from GUUD’s other trade logistics and compliance products.  

“We believe no company should be left out from trade financing. We believe the key is data – too much data is being wasted today,” he said, adding that the platform is not intended to compete with banks. 

The company tells GTR that although the system is currently only available in Singapore, “we definitely have plans to expand beyond Singapore to countries across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations region, and we are already in talks with financial institutions on bringing Ryte overseas”. 

GUUD, a group of companies under parent vCargo Cloud, bills itself as a tech firm covering all areas of trade facilitation.  

Lim Cheng Khai, the executive director for financial markets development at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the regulator, said the new product should deliver more “inclusive and efficient” trade finance solutions. 

“It is a welcome addition to Singapore’s trade finance ecosystem and reinforces Singapore’s proposition as a smart financing centre,” he is quoted as saying in a statement issued by GUUD. “MAS will continue to work closely with the financial, technology and trade sectors and government partners to facilitate a seamless, digital, trusted trade and financing ecosystem in Singapore.” 

Ryte joins a growing market of platforms aimed at smoothing the path to finance for smaller trading businesses. 

Earlier this year another Singapore fintech, dltledgers, launched a blockchain-based financing platform aiming to match SMEs with non-bank financiers. Another Singaporean outfit, Trames, has also launched a version of its supply chain optimisation platform for SME clients.