Xalts, fintech company in Singapore, acquires digital trade platform Contour Network

In a notable role reversal, Singapore-based fintech startup Xalts, established just 18 months ago, has successfully acquired Contour Network, a digital trade platform initially formed by a consortium of eight major banks, including HSBC, Standard Chartered, and BNP. While the specific terms of the deal remain undisclosed, the acquisition’s price is reported to be in the high single millions, comprising both cash and stock components.

Xalts, with support from Accel and Citi Ventures, specializes in empowering financial institutions to develop and manage blockchain-based applications. On the other hand, Contour, initiated in 2017 by the consortium of banks, aims to digitize trade processes and is currently utilized by 22 banks and over 100 global businesses, including prominent names such as Tata Group, Rio Tinto, and SAIC.

Founded in 2022 by Ashutosh Goel and Supreet Kaur, former senior executives at HSBC and Meta, respectively, Xalts addresses the challenge faced by large financial institutions and businesses in streamlining various financial products’ processes. These may include corporate loans, letter of credit issuance, or bank guarantees, which are often managed by different teams both within and outside the organizations. Xalts seeks to provide a unified platform allowing businesses to create and share their applications not only internally but also externally.

The plan is to transform Contour into a connectivity hub linking banks, corporations, and other institutions, integrating it with Xalts’ platform. This integration aims to enable Xalts’ clients to build and share applications securely and compliantly. Initially, the focus will be on facilitating banks and logistics companies to offer embedded trade and supply chain applications on a unified platform for their customers.

While global trade is anticipated to reach $30 trillion by 2030, the current processes involve considerable friction and time-consuming manual steps. Xalts aims to streamline this by enhancing connectivity between banks and corporate clients, offering B2B finance solutions, including trade finance and lending. For instance, a global fast fashion conglomerate with vendors in multiple countries could utilize Xalts to help vendors access financing through an integrated application on its internal portfolio, even if the conglomerate’s bank is not present in those specific countries, thus simplifying the process with a one-click solution.