Surecomp, a provider of trade finance systems to banks and corporates, has launched an innovation lab to bring together its trade finance digitisation initiatives.

Based in Israel’s Silicon Wadi and led by Surecomp’s head of digitalisation Lyron Wahrmann, SureLab will employ a multi-disciplinary staff of technologists, developers, product managers and UX/UI specialists.

SureLab will investigate how technologies including blockchain, robot process automation, regulatory technology and internet of things can best be utilised in trade finance areas such as supply chain, client interaction, open banking, back office processing and others. It will also provide an incubation environment for Surecomp clients and third-party fintech companies.

“We are pleased to announce the inauguration of SureLab, which is poised to become a focal point in digital trade finance innovation,” says Eyal Hareuveny, president of Surecomp. “We are confident that the innovations and services developed by SureLab will provide bottom-line benefits to our banking and corporate customers worldwide.”

During the first quarter of this year, Surecomp released two innovations: APIsure, an open API platform which enables its clients to easily adopt third-party trade finance services and fintech solutions, and SureStore, an online app store for trade finance-focused fintech solutions. Speaking to GTR at the time, Wahrmann said the launch of APIsure and SureStore forms part of a move by the company to help banks embrace open banking and use a marketplace approach to offer better services to their customers.

A company spokesperson tells GTR that the next initiative underway is SureConnect, a distributed network which will enable secure peer-to-peer communication between any corporate and any bank, allowing for the digitalisation of assets over the blockchain while mitigating risk and improving efficiency. No launch date has yet been announced, but Surecomp says that it will release more information about SureConnect in the coming weeks.