Do you remember the TradeLens project? A.P. Moller - Maersk and IBM discontinued a blockchain-enabled global trade platform. The idea was to interconnect different stakeholders across the supply chain. Through various interviews with stakeholders, we identified certain patterns indicating potential main issues: - Globally, the logistics market is dominated by SMEs (~98%). - TradeLens initially targeted integration with terminals and large entities, neglecting involvement from SMEs. - Feedback suggested that the platform did not offer enough value to SMEs, and its functionality was not clear. In summary, it was challenging to secure commitments from companies to join, and the objective of creating a global platform was too broad, considering the limited usage at the country or regional level. We at Cargo Stream are now adopting a bottom-to-top approach, onboarding various stakeholders from SMEs to large entities, and developing integrations that include third parties. Additionally, we are focusing on the European continent and adopting a country-by-country approach. The long-term strategy is to provide full supply chain management capabilities for land transportation and maritime, with the possibility of later adding trade options such as commodities. Each commodity trade also necessitates freight management. We narrow down the scope of TradeLens but the potential is there to achieve the similar bold objectives. Looking for partner in such venture. #startup #scale #growth #vc
Samuel Land
7mo
Thanks for sharing and congrats on the success to date. I have seen both strategies work big players developing a solution, eg INTTRA, or more focused go to market targeting SMEs. That said I have two questions for you. First how have you managed to cost-effectively acquire and onboard so many SMEs to drive your growth? Second, how do you see the transition from a SME customer base that you have today, to providing a commodity trading tool which will require a large number of MNC to provide the transaction flow to reach critical mass?
John Monarch
7mo
Is this built on-chain?
Management | Digital Transformation | Entrepreneur
7moWe've begun onboarding companies in South Africa. This may seem contradictory to my statement about focusing on the European continent, but we're employing a country-by-country strategy here. We prioritize areas where we anticipate faster gains. Moreover, our priority lies in deriving the best value from the platform, rather than simply pursuing sales.