Two former investment bankers have launched Tradeteq, a cloud-based platform that matches trade finance originators with institutional investors.

The platform went live this week after a soft launch in 2017, during which US$130mn of assets were processed, across seven international jurisdictions. During the soft launch, the originators were non-banks, typically factoring companies and corporate finance advisors organising funding for their corporate clients.

The company is based in London but will be opening a Singapore office later this month. The founders, Christoph Gugelmann and Nils Behling, worked together at Bank of America Merrill Lynch before they both joined Galena, the asset management arm of commodity trader Trafigura.

The pair then set up Thames Path Capital, a trade finance-focused asset manager, but found the market besieged by gaps blocking wider distribution of assets. This is a problem Tradeteq sets out to address.

Tradeteq makes money from the platform by charging a fee based on volumes passed through the platform. There are also premium services such as credit analytics and reporting. Registration fees may be introduced further down the line.

Behling says he sees “tremendous demand for the platform, so we are in the fortunate position that both sides [buyers and sellers] are very interested”.

“We really have seen trade finance asset distribution from every angle, and we understand the investor side extremely well. This is what gives us the edge to distribute trade finance assets from banks to institutional investors,” adds Gugelmann.

The venture capital arm of GTR, GTR Ventures, holds an equity stake in Tradeteq