We.trade

We.trade was a Dublin-based joint venture established by a consortium of European banks and IBM, designed to streamline international trade for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The initiative began in January 2017 under the project name Digital Trade Chain, a collaboration of nine banks, and was officially rebranded as we.trade in October 2017. The consortium grew to include twelve major banks such as CaixaBank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, KBC, Nordea, Rabobank, Santander, Société Générale, UBS, and UniCredit.

The company developed a digital trade platform built on the Linux Foundation's Hyperledger Fabric and running on the IBM Blockchain Platform. This technology aimed to address the complexities of trade finance by creating a more transparent, secure, and simplified environment. Clients, onboarded by their respective banks, could manage the entire trade process online, from creating orders to executing payments. The platform's core features included the use of distributed ledger technology (DLT) and smart contracts to ensure all parties had simultaneous access to the same information and to automate payments based on pre-defined events, such as the delivery of goods. A key offering was the Bank Payment Undertaking (BPU), which transferred counterparty risk from the seller to the banks, providing greater payment certainty.

The business model relied on licensing the platform to banks, which would then offer the service to their corporate clients. The platform officially began facilitating commercial transactions in March 2019. Despite its promising start and backing from major financial institutions, we.trade faced significant financial difficulties. In 2020, the company had to reduce its workforce by half due to lower-than-expected funding from its shareholder banks. A funding round in 2021 raised €5.5 million from six member banks and CRIF, a credit information provider, but this was insufficient to sustain operations. Unable to secure further investment, we.trade announced the discontinuation of its activities in May 2022 and subsequently entered insolvency proceedings, appointing PwC as liquidator.

Keywords: trade finance, blockchain, Hyperledger Fabric, joint venture, financial technology, SME trade, distributed ledger technology, smart contracts, Bank Payment Undertaking, supply chain finance, cross-border trade, digital trade platform, open account trade, IBM Blockchain, European banks, fintech consortium, trade automation, invoice financing, international commerce, corporate banking technology