Trustana seeking to help SMEs break barriers to trading globally

TEMASEK-founded Trustana knows what smaller businesses are up against when they try to navigate in the waters of international trade, where multinational corporations dominate.

It is therefore its mission, when it was set up in March 2020, to democratise access to cross-border markets for businesses of all sizes, and it has been doing this by running a digital cross-border business-to-business marketplace and trade platform.

Rebecca Xing, general manager at Trustana, notes that when small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) tap successfully into international trade circles, they tap into the chance to grow and to contribute to their countries' gross domestic product.

But to trade on the international playing field, these smaller businesses need the resources, know-how, time and money to invest. Ms Xing, a member of Trustana's founding team, added: "As a result of that, it's mostly a game for big companies."

SMEs find themselves having to deal with new factors that do not figure in domestic business, she added. "In international trade, you have to consider things like customs clearance, international regulation, taxation, currency exchange, cross-border payments, cross border logistics."

These become barriers to SMEs' entry into international trade and their ambition to expand. Consumers, on their part, lose out in that they may not have access to the newest, most interesting or most innovative products that these smaller companies could offer.

Trustana has also recognised that trade activities still occur largely offline, and that digitally-enabled trade accounts for under 6 per cent of global trade volumes. It has thus made it its mission to be the bridge between buyers and suppliers across borders, and, for a start, zeroed in on the food-and-beverage (F&B) sector.

Ms Xing noted that at the start of the pandemic, the F&B sector was of particular interest, given that countries were seeking to secure their food supply chains. At the same time, companies were looking to diversify their existing sources as supply chains became less stable.

Through its wholesale business model, Trustana facilitates wholesale transactions end-to-end, including cross-border payments, transaction fulfilment and shipping and logistics services, with economies of scale to enable SMEs to buy and sell F&B products such as mala instant noodles or coconut water in varying volumes without the fear of prohibitive costs.

Its marketplace model, used by more-experienced traders dealing with larger purchase volumes, directly connects buyers and suppliers, while aiding them in the negotiation and cross-border payment processes.

Trustana has set its sights on China's huge market, as well as markets closer to home. "We started with helping suppliers in China to export their products and sell them in Singapore and Malaysia," Ms Xing said.

"It's also not an easy market, I think, to operate in, so it was also helpful for us to be able to test our capabilities and build strong foundations, to cover the rest of our expansion."

As it worked with suppliers in China, Trustana learned that there was an appetite for international goods. Through conversations with local agencies such as Enterprise Singapore, IMDA (Infocomm Media Development Authority) and the Singapore Business Federation, the Singapore-headquartered company became aware that Singaporean suppliers were also seeking to put their products abroad.

"And so you kind of have these two sides of the equation," Ms Xing said. "We want to be able to help bridge this gap, the same way that we've been able to bridge it in the other direction. To be able to reverse the freight corridor."

Today, not even two years into its existence, Trustana has worked with "thousands of buyers and hundreds of suppliers", and fielded hundreds of queries asking for quotes, she said.

On Tuesday, Trustana announced a strategic collaboration with Ping An Group-associated technology-as-a-service platform provider OneConnect Financial Technology (Singapore) - in a partnership that will enable Singapore's SMEs to access a larger pool of Chinese buyers and gain access to more financial services, the companies said.

Trustana, currently operating in Singapore, Malaysia and China, will be adding more countries in the next couple of months; Thailand is one market, she said.

"Our ambitions were always to grow worldwide and to be able to serve multiple sectors, as well," she added. "Our intention is to continue to expand our operations in all the countries in Asean."