Theo Margolius
COO of Otta
Small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) are crucial to global trade, accounting for 98% of exporting businesses and contributing around 30% of volumes worldwide. Finance is usually required to facilitate these trades, but banks reject more than 50% of SME trade finance requests, resulting in a devastating funding gap of $1.5 trillion USD. As global trade booms and consumer demand is on the rise, SMEs have historically been left unable to capitalise on new trade opportunities.
Modifi aims to bridge this gap - it provides SMEs with simple digital solutions to finance and manage their trades, protect them from counter-party risk, and easily track their shipments. It services over 1,000 buyers and sellers across more than 40 countries. Since being founded in 2018, Modify has grown at an astounding rate, and is now the only digital trade finance platform for SMEs that spans the three major trading regions of Europe, Asia and North America - a cluster which encompasses approximately 80% of global imports and exports.
Following major funding across multiple rounds, Modifi's current strategy is focused on addressing increasing demand and helping more SMEs trade internationally on their digital platform. Fundamentally, with the OECD predicting that the trade finance landscape is to undergo "profound changes" in the coming years, Modifi has a great opportunity to be at the forefront of change for the better.