Triterras, which works in trade and trade finance, will be acquiring Invoice Bazaar, which has operations in the United Arab Emirates and offices in Dubai and India, according to a press release. The transaction is expected to close by the end of April.
Invoice Bazaar will remain its own company and be under the Triterras umbrella, the release stated. Invoice Bazaar was founded in 2016 and provides supply chain finance to the Gulf Cooperation Council markets, also operating “a leading platform for supply chain finance, accounts receivable financing and eCommerce vendor financing serving multi-national corporations and [small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs)] alike in the Middle East region.”
Triterras said in the release that it is acquiring Invoice Bazaar to help with operations and building the customer base. Some parts of Invoice Bazaar will be integrated into Triterras’ Kratos platform, its blockchain-enabled trading platform focused on traders in the SMB market.
Triterras has expanded before, working on an insurance module with Marsh in September and a logistics platform with Seven Oceans in January. There was also a strategic partnership with Western Union on cross-border payments, the release stated.
Triterras Chairman and CEO Srinivas Koneru said in the release that the transaction “establishes a strategic presence for us in the Middle East with a UAE approved regulatory structure already in place, allowing us to operate immediately upon closing.”
“Over time, we anticipate integrating Invoice Bazaar’s leading supply chain finance capabilities into our Kratos ecosystem,” he said, according to the release. “In addition, Invoice Bazaar brings to us a robust origination pipeline with enterprise-level clients. With each of Triterras and Invoice Bazaar possessing deep networks within our respective markets and offerings, we anticipate many potential synergies will emerge once we are fully integrated.”
SMBs often have trouble accessing the right resources to compete with larger counterparts, and the pandemic has only made things worse. Kountable CEO Chris Hale told PYMNTS that the smaller players are locked out because the best tools are often made for the highest level executives.