South Africa headquartered online escrow platform, TradeSafe which safeguards the buyer’s funds in trust in a transaction involving two or more parties has announced on 25th August, 2020, that it has secured an undisclosed amount of investment led by Standard Bank in exchange for 35% equity stake in the company.
TradeSafe’s escrow platform ensures funds are only released to the seller and other approved beneficiaries, once the buyer receives the goods or services in the agreed condition.
Talking about the investment, Jethro O’Brien, CEO of TradeSafe commented, “TradeSafe and Standard Bank realized the necessity for a fast, secure, and affordable escrow solution in the wake of the increasing volume of scams, fraud and unpaid invoice payments in South African commerce. Our fees come in at a fifth of what a reputable law firm or bank would charge in a transaction,”
Established in the year 2013, the startup claims to be the oldest escrow platform of Africa and also the first digital escrow organization in the world which provides an API gateway that offers an online marketplace and stores to enable escrow payments to customers.
The company has now received an investment from Standard Bank in return of 35% ownership. With this the start-up is set to scale up in terms of the types of transaction it can carry out.
TradeSafe has recently overhauled its platform and its API offering now also incorporates new payment gateways such as SnapScan and Ozow. It also employed Standard Bank’s proprietary host-to-host technology which allows for automated payments.
Mr. O’Brien further said, “The bank will provide a second release payment function. This means that with our increased governance, security and credibility, TradeSafe will now be able to target commodity and M&A transactions greater than ZAR25 million (US$1.5 million.”
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