DiMuto and OPAL Announce Agrifood Fintech Partnership to Tackle Trillion Dollar Global Trade Finance Gap

• DiMuto, a global trade solutions platform, joins forces with OPAL, a Major Payment Institution (MPI) providing money transfer solutions, to conduct agrifood trade payments on the blockchain
• The partnership will see a DiMuto Payment module that allows direct payment on the DiMuto Platform, enabling visibility of movement of money according to trades conducted and tracked on the platform
• The new payment module will leverage OPAL’s expertise in payment and financing solutions for SMEs that include multi-currency cross-border transactions, with highly competitive Fx rates that is cheaper than conventional methods, as well as ability to conduct safe and secure transactions to over 100 countries
• The digital payments collaboration between the two firms will form the foundation for DiMuto’s trade financing solution targeted at servicing unbanked Small-Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the agri-perishable sector
• Covid-19 has worsened the US$1.9 trillion global trade finance gap, estimated by experts to be as high as US$3.4 trillion now, with SMEs in emerging economies being hardest hit. SMEs have long faced difficulties accessing formal financing due to factors like creditworthiness, collateral requirements, short-term liquidity, and political or currency risk.
• By using technology like blockchain, cloud, IoT and AI to create combined visibility between movement of goods and movement of money on DiMuto Platform, DiMuto enables primary data collection for valuable insights into trade health and credit score, reducing financing risks and making trade financing more accessible for SMEs.

DiMuto and OPAL will develop a new first-of-its-kind payment module that will allow DiMuto’s agrifood customers to make payments directly tagged to the movement of goods on the DiMuto Platform, creating visibility of both the movement of goods and money for physical agrifood products tracked with DiMuto’s existing trade digitalization technology.

The DiMuto Payment module taps on OPAL’s expertise in servicing SMEs with payment and financing solutions. OPAL aims to be One Account for Payments and Loans (OPAL) for SMEs, by simplifying payment processes, lowering fees and providing easier access to financing. OPAL is able to facilitate safe and secure cross-border transactions in over 100 financial corridors with multi-currency accounts and competitive Fx rates that are cheaper than conventional banking methods. With the new DiMuto Payment module, DiMuto’s agrifood customers will be able to conduct transactions that are in full compliance with Singapore regulations and international AML/CFT standards.

“We are excited to bring our experience in the financial, payments and technology industry to the collaboration with DiMuto. The partnership gives OPAL an opportunity to reach more small and medium businesses globally, particularly in the agrifood and perishables trade, that have not been serviced by traditional banking institutions. We look forward to helping them accelerate their growth with complex payments made easy,” said Lim Ming Wang, Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of OPAL.

The digital payments collaboration establishes the first step to DiMuto’s trade financing solution for the unbanked SMEs in the agri-perishables sector that have traditionally been unable to access financing from conventional banking institutions. Despite being the largest contributors to employment and economic development, SMEs have struggled to obtain formal financing, due to factors including creditworthiness, collateral requirements, short- term liquidity, and political or currency risks. Asian Development Bank (ADB) found that over 40% of trade finance applications by SMEs are rejected and the global trade finance gap is a staggering US$1.5 trillion in 2019 and is projected by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) to increase to US$3.4 trillion due to Covid-19. The exponential trade finance gap impedes the effort to reduce poverty and minimize inequality, two of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

By capturing and developing primary trade data through trade digitalization, DiMuto effectively reduces the risks associated with trade financing. With both visibility of movement of physical goods and movement of money on the DiMuto Platform, DiMuto can now further develop data-driven agrifood asset financing.

“At DiMuto, our vision is to power global agrifood trade with visibility. We have built a powerful platform that combines IoT, cloud, blockchain, and AI technology in our journey to bring visibility to global trade,” said Gary Loh, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of DiMuto. “By partnering OPAL to enable direct payments on our platform, we are moving closer to this goal as this creates a complete solution tying the movement of goods to the movement of money. With this, we can transform global trade by tackling the financing needs of the unbanked agrifood market.”

The partnership between DiMuto and OPAL will enable trade that traditional trade finance cannot effectively support. DiMuto is implementing AI, machine learning capabilities, and new predictive analytic algorithms for valuable insights into the trade health and credit score of agrifood companies to develop alternative financing and insurance services for the global agrifood market.

Lim Ming Wang, Co-Founder and COO of OPAL, with Gary Loh, Founder and CEO of DiMuto at the MoU Signing Ceremony