Trade Ledger underpins expansion plans with trio of senior appointments

Hubble’s background combines traditional financial services and fintech experience. Most recently managing director at NatWest Markets, he oversaw the £250m international payments business, developing solutions for many of the world’s largest e-commerce marketplaces. Prior to that, Hubble was head of the commercial function at Currencies Direct where he grew business-to-business services from infancy and expanded the company across the globe.

Rikard af Ekenstam (middle) has been appointed as managing director, Europe, also a new role. Af Ekenstam, whose experience encompasses both the banking and research arenas, will have responsibility for growing the company’s footprint across Europe. Prior to joining Trade Ledger, he was managing director at OakNorth, the UK based bank and tech company backed by GIC and SoftBank, focusing on business development and corporate development. Before that he held leadership positions within commercial and investment banking, including head of the Nordic region for Mizuho Bank, head of the EMEA region for Moody’s Analytics Knowledge Services, and head of new markets for ABN AMRO Bank.

The third new role goes to Alan Beattie (right), who becomes executive director, APAC. He spent 25 plus years with HSBC in a variety of senior executive roles including as global CEO of Private Wealth Solutions, regional head of commercial banking in Latin America, and deputy CEO Europe, and has extensive experience in venture capital and early-stage growth businesses.

“The appointment of Jarrad, Rikard and Alan into these new positions in our executive team gives us the strength and depth to drive our international expansion as well as, importantly, improving access to finance for SMEs and mid-market corporates globally,” said Martin McCann, co-founder and CEO of Trade Ledger.

“Jarrad will work closely with me on continuing to strengthen Trade Ledger’s position as a trusted global lending technology brand. Rikard´s extensive experience in banking and analytics research coupled with long established relationships with financial institutions will help us build our presence throughout Europe. And Alan’s wealth of experience in financial services will be valuable in growing our footprint globally.”

The expansion of the senior leadership team follows a successful £13.5 million fundraising round by Trade Ledger in February, which was founded in 2016, and saw revenues grow 12-fold during 2020. At the time, McCann predicted a tripling of the customer base this year, and in April Virgin Money Virgin Money announced it was partnership with Trade Ledger as part of a new business banking proposition.

“Adoption of our technology is critical for the post-pandemic recapitalisation of the economy and we are driving growth as fast as our capital allows, to be able to support this critical economic need,

particularly for SMEs. New digital solutions based on real-time business data are the only way to address it,” McCann said.

Trade Ledger’s platform has a lending-as-a-service (LaaS) capability, supporting secured and unsecured lending, to unlock all types of working capital and business lending products for businesses that otherwise find access to finance difficult. Its platform supports all secured and unsecured business lending products, transforming data sources from the supply chain into actionable insights and tasks. This enables the right lending products to be created and offered at the right time, over the right channel, quickly, at low risk. The software provider says its clients boost their profitability, realising on average a 60% origination cost reduction, a 50% reduction in dropouts and loan book growth potential of over 100% through embedded finance.