Launched in 2021, 4Trans provides ML-driven financing to SMEs and other operators in logistics. Through a thorough understanding of financing, 4Trans provides a real-time data-based ecosystem of financial services. With a total volume of financed invoices worth over €47 million, 4Trans aims to become the leader in SME financing in Europe.
Jaroslav Ton, CEO at 4Trans, speaks to Warehouse & Logistics News.
What are your best-known products/solutions/services?
We provide financial products for small and medium sized companies operating in supply chain and logistics. By using data analysis and automation, 4Trans is able to do instant risk modelling and, as the service is fully digitalised, customers can receive payment of invoices of any size in minutes. This is in contrast to the three month average for invoice payments, or waiting for weeks in order to obtain traditional financing. Our service has proved massively popular – we have already provided a total volume of financed invoices worth over €47 million.
Which industry sectors are your customers in and which ones are growing fastest?
We are the only fintech that is geared towards helping individual hauliers and SMEs in logistics solve their financial problems in this way. The pandemic, the invasion of Ukraine alongside political and economic uncertainty has contributed to an increase in delays to invoices being paid. This has put considerable financial pressure on Europe’s small and medium sized hauliers. Unfortunately, most traditional financial institutions simply do not cater to this group and those that do take too long to provide financing or require very large invoices. We’ve created a range of solutions that give the small and independent entrepreneurs within the European supply chain the protection they need and deserve. Thanks to our services, they are given a lifeline and can access capital so that they can keep expanding their businesses.
What are your most recent product innovations?
What makes 4Trans truly special is that we’re leveraging a range of cutting edge tech like AI and behavioural data mining and analysis to feed our risk models and give our customers the best possible experience. We prioritise speed and ease of use because we know that any time spent sorting out financial admin is time when our customers aren’t on the road or running their business. Most customers can get their invoices sorted with a few clicks – it’s difficult to overstate just how much peace of mind this provides.
Our latest product, SME-tailored business loans, offers logistics’ companies quick and easy access to capital. 4Trans perfected its software intelligence to spot and predict the business potential of its clients, securitising with a Machine Learning-based risk model, and offer business loans aimed at expanding its clients’ businesses.
What are the major trends and developments affecting your category and your customers, and how are you responding?
As mentioned before, the world is in a challenging economic period. Inflation is rising, there are signs of recession and issues related to the aftermath of the pandemic are still being felt. Small and medium sized businesses across Europe have been under pressure since the end of 2021. In particular, the increase in fuel costs due to the war in Ukraine has added to the burden SMEs and independent hauliers face. A lack of working capital, 90-day invoice maturities and often expensive or unattainable bank financing is something the majority of the 500,000 logistics companies in Europe really struggle with.
We solve this via our ML-driven factoring service. This enables logistics companies and hauliers to gain immediate payment of issued invoices and verification of payment behaviour of debtors. As a result, businesses are able to protect their finances.
And there is a lot more we can do to help small companies operating in the supply chain. We plan to radically expand the range of financial products we offer and take our services to every European country.
Ultimately, we want to expand globally beyond our current markets to cater to any SME in logistics that has difficulty accessinging the financial industry. Our belief is that by tackling financial exclusion and underbanking we can really make a difference to people’s lives by giving them the tools they need to grow their businesses on an even playing field.
Can you tell us about any recent customer contracts and how you helped the customer meet their challenges?
We were recently told by a customer that their business was saved by 4Trans. As you can imagine, that was a very emotional moment for me. This was the point where I knew we had built something that makes an important difference. Since then more of our customers have come forward to say that 4Trans is a lifeline for them and each time it makes me incredibly proud of what our team has achieved and enthusiastic for what we can go on to do in the future.
How does business in 2021 compare to previous years? What’s your strategy for succeeding in the current climate?
4Trans is still a relatively new startup. We only fully launched our services in Europe in the past 18 months. In that time we’ve seen growth skyrocket, landed one of the largest Seed Rounds in Czech tech history and perfected our initial offering to our customers. At the moment we’re concentrating on growing our team with a view to rolling out our services to more European countries.
What’s the latest news from your company?
We have just launched two new major offerings for our customers: expansion of the factoring model for GBP and SME-tailored business loans. By expanding our factoring services to accommodate the British pound, we can better support customers operating outside of the Euro area and especially hauliers that operate in the UK to avoid currency losses. Our business loans service enables SMEs in logistics to have quick and easy access to capital.
Can you tell us about any areas where you’re currently making technical advances eg safety, sustainability, environment?
We strongly believe that we are making advances in the financial system. We are built on the principle that by giving people, who are locked out of the financial system, access you can help them prosper. Everyone we hire believes in that ideal. This gives a real sense of purpose. (In)accessibitly of capital, especially to SMEs, is a structural issue that we aim to solve. Ultimately, we believe that our approach directly tackles the “S” in ESG. We aren’t building a startup for the sake of it, it’s doing something meaningful and good. This naturally means our culture is geared towards openness and innovation.
Are you investing in staff training and skills development?
As our culture is one of openness and innovation, we listen to our staff to help them develop professionally and personally. Ideas can come from right across the team and are listened to because we know that everyone has the same goal of improving financial inclusion. This of course means that we invest in training and skills development to get the best out of everyone.
Are you taking part in any major trade shows? Can you tell us what you’ll be exhibiting there?
We’re attending a handful of FinTech related conferences such as FinovateEurope, Alpha Wolves Summit, Finnovex Europe, xAI Conference, Money 20/20, WEB Summit and Slush. Visitors to the conference will be able to chat to us face-to-face and experience our AI-enabled services with a demo.
4Trans
w: en.4trans.cz
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