Dealflow, a new platform aimed at automating several manual aspects of trade finance transactions, is set to hit the market later this month, its founder told GTR.
The software has been developed by founder and trade finance lawyer Laurie Hammond, an industry veteran who also recently joined London-headquartered firm Keystone Law as a partner.
Dealflow is aimed at lenders, borrowers and lawyers “wanting to complete some sort of trade financing or trade purchase structure”, Hammond told GTR.
The “end-to-end solution” follows standard transaction processes but “takes care of the thankless tasks, streamlines documentation and collaboration and unplugs common deal bottlenecks”, she said.
“It is effectively a transaction management platform that has a super-niche focus on trade finance deals.
“It brings all parties, documents and tasks into one secure cloud-based hub, giving everyone the tools to close deals faster, add more value and help everyone enjoy the whole process more.”
The Dealflow platform automates the production of finance documents for lending and purchasing arrangements, facilitates online document editing, approval and signing, helps manage know-your-customer checks and offers a reporting feature that summarises all active and archived deals.
The platform charges a fixed fee per transaction with unlimited users.
It also provides access to a panel of experienced trade finance lawyers who charge fixed fees for specific scopes, such as reviewing, drafting or issuing opinions.
All users involved in a transaction can access the platform, which is housed in a secure Microsoft Azure-based hub.
The platform will initially target “lower-value deals that are less heavily negotiated”, where users can easily access standard trade finance structures, Hammond said.
She added the product was particularly suited for SMEs and micro corporates, helping to ease the cost pressures of making smaller deals.
“These are very short-term loan instruments and we can offer the service a lot cheaper than using a traditional firm to do the bulk of it.”
Hammond said that the idea for Dealflow stemmed from some of the “inefficient” cross-border trade processes she has faced throughout her 20-year legal career.
“I felt a lot of the steps in the standard transactional process could be done better and more efficiently with the help of automation and various technical tools, so this idea was brewing for a long time,” she said.
Hammond added the goal was not to “totally replace lawyers”, but to streamline routine steps in drafting a standard facility agreement and to improve communication by keeping all exchanges in one place.
“I think it’ll really make a big difference,” she said.
Dealflow, which has been in the making for the past two years, has already received interest from trade finance funds and some African banks, Hammond confirmed.
The trade finance platform will officially launch at the GTRAfrica London event on November 20, where it will open a waitlist for client demos.
