Private equity investor Warburg Pincus has led a successful round of financing for TradeCard, raising $25.5 million in equity capital to fuel the company's expansion.
TradeCard, which offers an online alternative to traditional paper-based trade settlement, will use the funding to increase its member base and partnership bank network. While the company is headquartered in New York, much of its business is generated in Asia. Of the 12 partner banks that provide financing on TradeCard orders, nine are located in Asia, and 50% of its 200 exporter clients also hail from the region.
Warburg Pincus, which owns a majority stake in TradeCard, and has led all capital raisings since the company's inception. The latest round brings the total to $70 million. A number of the company's other shareholders also participated in the latest financing.
"The capital raising is a vote of confidence in TradeCard s business," says Richard Lightbound, head of business development for Asia Pacific in Hong Kong. "Now when we visit companies to talk to them about using our technology to collaborate online with their trading partners they know that they are dealing with a substantial company with strong financial backing."
TradeCard's two biggest Asian markets are Hong Kong and Taiwan, but it also has joint venture partners in Korea and Japan, and operates in Singapore through its banking relationship with OCBC.
"The number of companies signing up to our service in Asia has increased by between 25% and 50% each month," says Lightbound. "We will be using some of the new funding raised from Warburg Pincus to fund our sales and marketing efforts in the region."
