Supply Chain · sub-niche
Trade finance rails.
Letter-of-credit + invoice-finance + cross-border-payments rails for SMB importers + exporters.
Team-sized buildTrickle — one deal per quarter
Why now
Trade finance is a $1.7T market. SMBs are underserved by HSBC / Citi.
What the signal looks like
Repos with bank-API adapters, document-OCR libraries, and KYC + compliance frameworks.
Public examples
We name publicprojects + categories only — never founders we track inside the paid product. The buyer’s edge stays inside the product.
- Marco Polo shape
- Bolero
- Open-source trade-finance libraries
What this displaces
A bank visit + a 90-day LOC waiting period.
Our build-vs-invest call
Capital + regulatory burden. Fund only with banking-fintech team. The moat is the bank-partner network + the compliance + the document AI.
Common questions about this niche
- Buyer?
- SMB importers + exporters.
- Pricing?
- % of transaction.
- Compliance?
- OFAC + AML + ICC UCP 600.
More inside Supply Chain
- Shipment tracking aggregators — Track shipments across 100+ carriers — sea, air, land, parcel.
- Customs automation LLMs — HTS classification + customs-documentation + duty-calculation LLMs.
- Freight broker SaaS — TMS + load-board + carrier-management for freight brokers.
- Last-mile routing engines — Vehicle-routing + dispatch optimization for last-mile delivery.