Its investment aims to enhance its joint supply chain ecosystem proposition and provide suppliers with access to affordable and convenient financing. 

Standard Chartered has made a strategic investment into Linklogis – the bank’s first investment in a supply chain platform in China, as well as the first global bank investor in Linklogis, the bank announced in a statement on Thursday.

The bank said the investment reinforces its efforts to support China’s opening by facilitating the flow of capital, especially in Greater China. It will leverage Linklogis' technology to «provide large corporate buyers with greater visibility and transparency of their extensive network of suppliers, as well as cheaper and easier access to financing for suppliers further upstream,» the announcement said.

Standard Chartered will explore also new opportunities with Linklogis, including the extension of these solutions to support cross-border flows, it added.

Key Priority

The move follows a memorandum of understanding signed between the two parties in February 2019 to jointly develop and deliver a supply chain financing proposition, and the completion of several joint deep-tier supply chain financing transactions.

«Providing deep-tier supply chain financing is a key priority in our strategy to support our clients’ entire sales and distribution network,» Simon Cooper, CEO of Corporate, Commercial and Institutional Banking, Standard Chartered, said.