Eliant Trade Finance has hired Rahul Saxena as its head of Asia Pacific, a newly created position, in a bid to grow the working capital finance company’s business in the region.

Saxena was previously the managing commercial director at digital trade finance platform Olea for three years. Olea is a joint venture between Hong Kong technology company Linklogis and Standard Chartered, where Saxena initially helped develop the firm’s origination function. He also has previous experience as an Asia regional head at both Greensill and ANZ.

Saxena will report directly to Eliant interim CEO Will Gould.

Saxena tells GTR that the new position “will allow for heightened responsiveness, deeper connections and stronger working relationships with all parties”.

Saxena says his priority will be to establish relationships across the region with manufacturers and logistics providers and work closely with colleagues across Asia Pacific to deliver “creative” trade finance solutions to clients. He remains based in Singapore.

Eliant is an origination platform of asset manager Apollo Global Management. The company describes itself as “part of the Apollo ecosystem and  one of Apollo’s 16 origination platforms that drive scaled origination of primarily investment grade asset-backed credit for Apollo and its clients”.

In 2022 the company launched Eliant Inventory Solutions as a joint venture with BNP Paribas, reflecting what it called “strong customer demand” for supply chain resilience services.

“More and more companies are looking for economically efficient ways to strengthen their supply chains and bolster resilience, while traditional financing sources have largely stopped originating these assets – creating a significant opportunity for us to engage as a solutions provider,” Apollo partner Ephraim Rudman said at the time.