19 Dec Nedcargo seeks collaboration on Inventory Financing
In a recent article on challenges in inventory financing, Holland FinTech described how fintech solutions can help companies with financing based on their stock, and how this ultimately benefits all actors in the supply chain.
Yet finding the right solutions can be a challenge in and of itself: the application of fintech solutions to logistics problems is quite new, and finding the right provider and solution can take a lot of effort.
On Wednesday 13 December, we had the chance to help make a match between a fintech company and a logistics company at the Logistics & FinTech Challenges, hosted by Holland FinTech, Dinalog and Rabobank.
Freight-forwarding company Nedcargo shared its challenge concerning data sharing for transport companies. Nedcargo transport wholesale stock from shipping yards to retail stores, often storing it in their warehouses along the way. They are increasingly attracting smaller clients who sell boutique goods, and they are keen to help their smaller clients use their inventory as collateral for inventory financing.
To begin, Jannine van Lieshout from Nedcargo presented the company’s challenge. So far they have been working with banks to offer factoring of bills to their clients as a service, but now they want to move into work capital financing. They have a lot of data about the warehouse inventory of their clients. Can they use this data to create an extra service to their clients in which they will obtain financing advantages?
Rabobank were the first to pitch their solution to the challenge. Gerard Schalken from Rabobank commented that Rabobank already has Rabo Factoring. Through this service they want to run a pilot with one of NedCargo’s customers.
Software company Exact, who makes accounting software, took the floor next. Joost van Koot explained that Exact are running a new proof of concept now using blockchain. The chain is not used to save documents, but for the validation of data. Using the hash in the API they can access company documents. Currently they are running this with one bank, hoping to create a new service with several banks. The platform is in development, however they already deployed in one pilot. A lot is to be learned on the legal side, but technology is available for this innovation.
CFO of Nedcargo, Jannine van Lieshout, said:
“Nedcargo has a strong focus on a wasteless supply chain. In our opinion waste is food waste, reduction of CO2, waste of time and waste of money. So we also focus on how to finance working capital of our clients. We got some useful insights how to finance inventory of our clients at the lowest cost”. Jannine van Lieshout- Nedcargo
According to Gijs Pel of Holland FinTech “The Nedcargo case was especially interesting since there is no clear off the shelve solution in the market available yet. Several players need to work together in order to create a sustainable and value adding solution. In the coming period it will be interesting to see how the solution for this challenge develops.”