We are continuing to drive growth as an integral part of Standard Chartered Group’s innovation mandate. Specifically, our digital assets ventures are playing key roles in regulatory digital asset strategies across the globe.
In Asia, Libeara, our tokenization platform, along with Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), Mox and Mastercard successfully completed a Proof of Concept on tokenized deposits and tokenized carbon credits through Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s (HKMA) Fintech Supervisory Sandbox.
Libeara is also providing Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) connectivity to the HKMA sandbox Project Ensemble. In addition, Libeara is participating in HKMA’s e-HKD Pilot Programme to explore the digital money ecosystem. Zodia Markets, our institutional-grade digital assets trading venture, is participating in the HKMA Stablecoin Issuer Sandbox.
In the Middle East, Zodia Markets is serving as the initial launch client of Standard Chartered’s Digital Asset Custody services in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Separately, we also signed a partnership agreement with BIM Ventures to foster innovation and build fintech companies in the Middle East.
Over in Europe, we made a strategic investment in One Trading, a leading European crypto-asset exchange. It is the first Markets in Financial Instruments Directive trading venue for perpetual futures in Europe and the first regulated derivatives exchange in Europe accessible to retail clients.
Moving away from regulatory collaborations, below is a look at the progress our ventures made in Q3.
audax, our digital banking tech solution provider, partnered with Synpulse to deliver digital solutions that modernises banking infrastructure and enables banks to implement scalable solutions in as fast as six months. In August, audax hosted a round table with Anabatic, Brankas and Huawei to strengthen its presence in Indonesia.
Olea,our trade finance origination and distribution platform, partnered with SWIAT, our portfolio company that develops blockchain software, to enable fully digitalised supplier financing on blockchain. The partnership leverages SWIAT’s tokenization engine and Olea’s expertise in trade receivable financing.
Solv, our B2B e-commerce platform, is growing its Middle East presence with Farooq Siddiqi joining to scale the platform in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region.
TASConnect, our supply chain finance platform, partnered with Atalink in Vietnam to improve how organisations handle their procure-to-pay processes and financing operations. The venture also showcased its joint capabilities with NEC at a Tokyo event in partnership with Standard Chartered Bank and SC Ventures. It also signed an MoU with Global FinTech Institute to promote fintech in digital trade finance.
Solv Vietnam is now a key partner of Vietnam Maritime Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MSB). The venture will support MSB on their journey of digital transformation and empowering small to medium enterprises (SMEs). Solv Vietnam has supported over 500 dealers with working capital programs provided by its banking partners, with approvals crossing US$1.5 million.
Zodia Custody, our digital assets custodian, released a report on The Future of Custody in a Tokenised World, which explores what a tokenised future will hold for custody. It also launched ADA staking to provide financial institutions with greater optionality to earn potential rewards from on-chain activity. Over the past quarter, Zodia Custody announced four new partners and three new clients.
Zodia Markets, our institutional-grade digital assets trading venture, has traded over US$7 billion two-sided notional volume year-to-date. It also signed a partnership with Paxos, enabling it to be active in PYUSD and support the PayPal USD stablecoin.
Client Co-Creations
The Client Co-Creation team hosted the second Creation Circle in Nairobi where 15+ clients across 10 industries discussed collaborations; the need for more innovation connectivity in the region; circular economy and financial inclusion.If you are interested in exploring client co-creation opportunities, please reach out to Apurv Suri.
In partnership with INSEAD and Standard Chartered Bank, we offered our first Young Entrepreneur Programme powered by the Intrapreneurship team for the next generation of high-net-worth clients. The programme brought together 53 participants of 14 nationalities. Our Intrapreneurship team in tandem with INSEAD senior faculty took participants through a journey – from embedding a human-centered design, translating client insight into venture ideas to building and pitching convincing business models.
As always, please reach out if you are interested in any of the news mentioned above or if you would like to co-create client solutions with us.
Alex Manson
CEO, SC Ventures
