Tech-based working capital solutions provider Demica has hired three ex-bankers in newly-created roles across its senior team in the firm’s London office.

Shikha Kalra joins from Rabobank as a director of working capital structuring; Justin Stratton-Christensen leaves Lloyds Bank to work as placement director; and George Otiashvili moves from Bank of America to take up the position of product manager, trade receivables finance.

Demica has also moved to a new larger London office in the city centre to house the growing team.

Maurice Benisty, chief commercial officer at Demica tells GTR that the new hires are in line with its business growth.We can now structure and place 25 to 30 transactions a year, but three or four years ago, the number was in the high single digits. So as the transaction flow and number of products has increased, we’ve hired new people.”

New hires to the London office this year also include, in June, Stefano Cavalleri who moved from Commerzbank to Demica in a senior credit analyst role, and in May, Jason Meyer left Mizuho to take up a director position in the working capital structuring team.

“If we are hiring to support transactions, particularly corporate transactions, then the skills that we need tend to come from banks. And as we are developing products and new features for the platform, the skills to turn product ideas into requirements for our tech team also comes from banks,” Benisty says.

He adds that the Demica team has “significantly increased” the number of banks they are providing whitelabel services to and that there are around 15 partnership opportunities in discussion at present.

“Our strategy is simple,” he says. “It is to continue to acquire new bank platform customers and that will be achieved through deepening our relationships with banks and adding more features and functionality to the platform so that we’re able to give them a solution that crosses payables and receivables transactions, from the more complex needs to simpler invoice discounting structures. We plan to add inventory capability into the platform too,” he says.

In other news, Demica recently unveiled a new portal for its trade receivables finance platform that will allow banks to access its transaction management tools and set up deals directly. Revealed in June, the functions were previously only available through the fintech’s internal systems. Demica believes that by removing itself from the transaction process, it will allow banks to increase the volume of deals completed on the platform.