Business commerce platform Tradeshift is set to further expand its supply chain finance operations, having raised US$250mn in series E funding.

The announcement comes just one week after the firm launched a fintech solution, Tradeshift Pay, making Tradeshift the first platform to incorporate supply chain payments, finance and blockchain-based payments into one unified solution.

The firm was originally founded in 2010 as a cloud-based platform to connect companies globally and help them digitalise and manage their supply chains.

But since last year, Tradeshift has made supply chain finance and payments a core focus area. First, it entered a partnership with HSBC in March, then partnered with Santander in July, and the firm is currently “adding one to two banks a quarter to the platform”, Tradeshift’s CEO and co-founder Christian Lanng told GTR in a recent interview. The release of Tradeshift Pay was the latest move in the company’s bid to become an end-to-end platform for supply chain financing.

Today the Tradeshift platform hosts more than 1.5 million firms including the likes of Air France-KLM, DHL, Fujitsu, Siemens, Unilever and Volvo, and has enabled companies to digitalise on average 70-80% of their supply chains.

According to the company, the new funding round will be used to continue its global expansion in Europe and Asia as well as drive growth in volumes and values across the platform. It will also be used to make strategic investments into emerging technologies, including blockchain and artificial intelligence via its Frontiers division, which was launched in January.

The firm is already making great progress in bringing blockchain technology to its users: the platform can now integrate with the likes of Ripple’s blockchain payments and R3’s Corda, and last year the company joined the open-source Hyperledger initiative to share expertise and “bridge blockchains to the Tradeshift platform”.

The funding round was led by Goldman Sachs and PSP Investments, with additional participation from HSBC, H14, GP Bullhound and Gray Swan, a new venture company established by Tradeshift’s founders. It brings Tradeshift’s total funding to more than US$400mn.

With this new investment (although the specific amount has not been disclosed), HSBC, which also took part in the previous funding round, has increased its stake in Tradeshift.

The partnership forms part of the bank’s strategy to provide fully digitised and automated working capital propositions to its clients. It allows HSBC customers to manage their global supply chains and working capital requirements in one digital platform, and enables the bank to provide financing to companies much further down the chain.

Commenting on the progress of the partnership so far, Vinay Mendonca, HSBC’s global head of product and propositions, global trade and receivables finance, tells GTR: “The proposition has resonated really well with our clients, who are keen on bringing their physical and financial supply chain management together. Tradeshift’s agile and flexible digital solutions complement HSBC’s network and balance sheet capabilities. The partnership is progressing very well.”

According to Tradeshift’s Lanng, at least five other banks will soon be onboarded to the platform, but these have not yet been publicly named.