Temasek's Trustana to integrate OneSME digital platform into B2B marketplace

BUSINESS-to-business (B2B) marketplace Trustana on Tuesday announced a strategic collaboration with OneConnect Financial Technology with the aim of facilitating growing trade opportunities between small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore and China.

Trustana was founded by Temasek and is headquartered in Singapore with a hub in Shanghai, China. The B2B platform was built using technology by Affinidi, a digital identity startup also owned by Temasek.

Meanwhile, OneConnect is a technology-as-a-service platform provider and an associate of China's Ping An Group. Its cross-border digital trade platform OneSME was launched by Singapore's Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) and OneConnect in September 2020.

Under the new strategic partnership, Trustana will integrate OneSME into its marketplace. This will enable SMEs in both Singapore and Asean to access a larger pool of buyers in China, seize international trade opportunities and benefit from value-added services on Trustana's platform, said Trustana and OneConnect in a joint press statement.

Fulfilment offerings on the marketplace will initially focus on the food and beverage sector. Through the new integrated platform, SMEs in Southeast Asia can buy and sell their products directly to pre-screened buyers and suppliers in China.

Such a collaboration will provide SMEs with access to a buyer base of four million Chinese SMEs via OneConnect's YiQiYe, a one-stop platform that provides financing, insurance and cash management solutions to SMEs in China.

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Trustana will also integrate with Guangxi Open Finance Platform, a cross-border digital financial services platform jointly built and operated by OneConnect and Digital Guangxi Group to promote collaboration between governments, institutions and enterprises.

As such, Trustana and OneConnect believe their partnership will strengthen the former's presence in China as a buyer marketplace and accelerate ongoing expansion to other trade corridors in Asean.

OneConnect will provide Trustana buyers and suppliers with access to financial services products through OneSME's first bank partner, UOB.

"By leveraging our respective advantages - Trustana's cross-border trade expertise and transaction fulfilment services and OneConnect's extensive financial services industry expertise and network - and with continued support from IMDA, we are well-positioned to empower local businesses to enter the China market swiftly and securely," said Trustana's general manager Rebecca Xing.

She views the collaboration with OneConnect as a "significant step forward" in the company's mission to democratise access to cross-border markets for businesses of all sizes.

"The collaboration between OneConnect and Trustana will combine the reach of two home-grown B2B platforms and enhance our SMEs' access to overseas opportunities in China. I encourage SMEs keen to tap on these opportunities to reach out to our platform partners for assistance," said Leong Der Yao, assistant chief executive for sectoral transformation at IMDA.