Here’s our 80th AMA recap!
Thank you to the Infinity Chain for participating in Ask Me Anything (AMA) with POLYTRADE June 5, 2021. This guest star,
- Piyush Gupta — CEO & Founder, Polytrade
- Arul Prakash — COO, Polytrade
INTRODUCTION
Piyush Gupta :
Its great to emeet you all today. I’ve been with the Trade finance industry for the last 15 years with experience in organizations like Societe Grenerale, Kitara Corp, AmiCorp and few other big names. I setup my own trade finance business back in 2014 and since then have expanded operations to Hong Kong, Singapore, India and Dubai. Am currently based out of Dubai. At Riqueza capital we have processed invoices worth more than 500mn USD in the last few years… all of which we are confident will move to POLYTRADE. Am an Aerospace Engineering from IIT Bombay by education.
We have been working with Trade finance for last few years and definitely have an inside view of the challenges that this space had. The advent of blockchain opened up good possibilities for removing many of those challenges. As we were thinking about solving it for the last few years, finally we have the right guidance and inputs to actually convert and make it happen. Polytrade is that aspiration of removing all the friction in the conventional trade finance space.
Arul :
Arul Prakash here… COO of Polytrade. I have more than 15 years of experience working with Fortune 10 companies in my recent past and heading product development & business transformation functions for many of my clients. Worked with companies like Walmart, CVS, Accenture and the TATA group extensively. Have been in the crypto space for the last 4 years and waiting for the opportunity to bring real world to Cryptosphere. MBA & engg by education.
Could you please provide us with a simple description of Polytrade Finance?Piyush Gupta :
Let me tell a bit about Trade Finance Industry to begin with. The overall size of this industry is above 7 trillion USD. while it includes multiple elements one of they and the core pieces of it is Receivables financing. With Invoice Financing and Invoice factoring being two methods of how receiable financing works, the process kicks in when a supplier/manufacturer supplies to a buyer. Typically there is a duration called as Credit period. this is the duration after which the Supplier actually gets paid by the Buyer — Which means if the Buyer receives the goods today, he will only be making the payment 60 days later to the supplier.
This locks up critical capital that the supplier needs to pay his suppliers, employees, maintenance etc.
So in this case, TIME is literally money.
The borrower approaches lending and financing companies today for this working capital so he can pay his expenses.
POLYTRADE intends to provide this much required capital to suppliers at an industry competitive fee structure. We will seek funds from crypto native investors to use our platform to lend us stable coins. These stable coins are then converted to fiat or otherwise, and given to the suppliers, who then become our borrowers. So instead of waiting for the entire duration of the credit period, the supplier immediately gets access to the cash for his expenses.
The responsibility of collecting the money now has been moved to Polytrade from the Supplier. Now the BUYER, has a liability to pay POLYTRADE. Once payment is received the cycle is complete.
The motive of POLYTRADE is to BLOCKCHAIN enable this and improve various facets of Invoice factoring.
What makes Polytrade special? What solutions does Polytrade offer in terms of financial instruments that outperform competitors?Arul :
An Excellent question. Trade Finance as i mentioned is centuries old… Our whitepaper includes few intersting aspects about Trade Finance. Would request our community to have a good read through it to understnad TradFi better.
Currently trade Finance is like a huge Mammoth, slow to move, slow to evolve, and soon to be replaced with something fast and nimble. This gets reflected in the Long duration to process requests, high fees and high invoice value barriers. Getting a new borrower onboard and making a payment can take up to 3 months!!!! No one has this kind of time. today there is close 1.6 trillion USD, yes TRILLION, of opportunity which is not addressed because the whole system is slow and demanding
With Polytrade we will bring in these distinct benefits to our borrowers
- Financing on Lower invoice values ( even 5k USD, usually to the tune of 100k USD, with large lenders
- Quick resolution. We intend to minimize the time taken for processing these invoices down to mere days than months
- Access to lower better liquidity. With Crypto lenders in the play we are directly challenging the old world autocrats sitting in conventional banks who act as deterrents for any change.
Following the market’s recent dramatic downturn, the prices of major currencies have plummeted. How can you balance between developing a project and adding value to your product? Can you explain about the tokenomics and utility of $TRADE?Piyush Gupta :
Crypto market has always been volatile. Our aim is to keep focussing on underlying business and add value to token holders by generating revenues.
TRADE is going to be the oil that will move this centuries old industry and the processes at Polytrade.
Some of the benefits it will provide in the network are:
“Governance: Allows validated holders to influence protocols decisions.
Staking Rewards: Stake $TRADE to get rewarded
Borrowers: Receive reduced interest rates for staked and payment done via TRADE tokens.
Buyers: Receive discounts on invoices for settlements done on the Polytrade platform.
Service Providers: Receive TRADE for participating in the trade finance economy by performing key tasks of KYC, document validation, credit evaluation, and more (Phase 2)”
We will be having a total supply of 100 million tokens. We are performing certain final tweak to our model to ensure Polytrade gets the right visibility and benefits to our community. Our new tokenomics will soon be published before the IDO.
What security Polytrade have taken to keep the investors and users funds secure?Arul :
There will be two layers of security and protection provided.
1. Code exploits & Hacks — Insurance from Srypto insurance companies against any hacks
2. Credit insurance — Unlike any other DEfi project I can confidetly say that our underlying business itself is insured… So the chances of losing out money are taken away completely for our investors.
For Crypto insurance we are looking at Nexus Mutual and for credit insurance we have already been working with Euler Hermes. Euler is century old traditional credit insurance business. Both of these companies are well established known names in their own space.
On top of this code audits also be certified by industry leaders.
We are also including our roadmap plans to create an insurance fund which will be funded by token stakers and the fees from the protocol… Guess I spilled the beans too early.. 🙂 its still WIP.
About Roadmap, what can we expect from Polytrade in near future, any new event coming up?Piyush Gupta :
Majority of our focus until now has been around product development and investor onboarding. Wrt product development we are working towards designing and developing the various portals that the product will have. We are also focussed on building our teams to cater to all the requirements that we have.
And on investor onboarding sharing our vision with the industry leaders and proving them our ability to ensure this becomes a reality has been a major task, but a great eye opener to achieve. We have some of the best investors in this space and they are providing invaluable guidance to us in how to ramp up from where we are.
On borrower side, there has been a lot of discussion with our existing customers, warming them upto Polytrade and the various benefits that will be offered to them. They are way more excited about it than us.
Our immediate timeline includes. an updated whitepaper, updated roadmap, updated website, IDO announcement. post IDO our entire focus will shift towards product development which should see a MVO launched in the mainnet within the next 2 quarters. We intend to partner with downstream and upstream businesses within the trade finance area to ensure we become an all -encompassing layer for trade finance.
Our other key focus area is going to be security and safety. We are getting our contracts certified currently and will be periodically doing so with industry leaders in this space. We also will be working with our insurance providers who will also be providing the additional safety for our investors and lenders.
About Roadmap, what can we expect from Polytrade in near future, any new event coming up?Arul :
h ha ha a… I will pick this one up and copy paste what @piyush_gup1a already mentioned above.
Arul :
Our immediate timeline includes. an updated whitepaper, updated roadmap, updated website, IDO announcement. post IDO our entire focus will shift towards product development which should see a MVO launched in the mainnet within the next 2 quarters. We intend to partner with downstream and upstream businesses within the trade finance area to ensure we become an all -encompassing layer for trade finance.
Our other key focus area is going to be security and safety. We are getting our contracts certified currently and will be periodically doing so with industry leaders in this space. We also will be working with our insurance providers who will also be providing the additional safety for our investors and lenders.
QUESTIONS TWITTER
Q1. Revenue is an important aspect for all projects to survive and maintain the project / company. What is the way to generate profit / revenue of token? What is the income model?Arul :
Our revenue will be based on competitive rates that we can offer to lenders in comparison to other platforms. In addition this will be supplanted by our on ground Sales & marketing teams who have been working in the field for the last 6 years who have a huge repository of borrowers waiting to get access to smaller ticket size financing.
We will tap into liquidity pool from Crypto markets to get funds and lend them out to borrowers.
Advantages to crypto Lenders: Safe insurance backed investment in real world asset, which was not accessible before.
Advantages to Borrowers: Super quick financing even for smaller ticket sizes.
Q2. Polytrade has insurance backed by real world assets for crypto goods, what organization is in charge of the insurance, is it audited?Piyush Gupta :
Very important question.
There will be two layers of security and protection provided.
1. Code exploits & Hacks — Insurance from Srypto insurance companies against any hacks
2. Credit insurance — Unlike any other DEfi project I can confidetly say that our underlying business itself is insured… So the chances of losing out money are taken away completely for our investors.
For Crypto insurance we are looking at Nexus Mutual and for credit insurance we have already been working with Euler Hermes. Euler is century old traditional credit insurance business. Both of these companies are well established known names in their own space.
On top of this code audits also be certified by industry leaders.
Q3. How does Polytrade address the gap in accounts receivable financing? Does your project provide SMEs with a new source of financing? How does POLYTRADE enable you to tap into the huge pool of crypto liquidity?Arul :
POLYTRADE intends to provide this much required capital to suppliers at an industry competitive fee structure. We will seek funds from crypto native investors to use our platform to lend us stable coins. These stable coins are then converted to fiat or otherwise, and given to the suppliers, who then become our borrowers. So instead of waiting for the entire duration of the credit period, the supplier immediately gets access to the cash for his expenses.
Q4. What partners are you currently collaborating with on your project? What benefits do partners bring to your project and vice versa? What is the criteria for choosing a partner?Piyush Gupta :
With respect to Crypto ecosystem we are in early stages of building our partnerships. Having Sandeep Nailwal, COO of POLYGON as our Advisor/investor definitely, opens up many doors. We are looking at multiple crypto native upstream and downstream partners in the area of insurance, Credit checks, logistics, banking, etc.
Criteria are simple. Be a blockchain player. We all are part of same Ecosystem. Together we can make a difference. So every partnership is important.
Q5. I read that the PolyTrade platform has a built-in reward system, can you tell us more about it? How does this built-in reward system work and what should users do to get rewards from it? Also, what can they do with what they earn in this system?Arul :
TRADE is going to be the oil that will move this centuries old industry and the processes at Polytrade.
Some of the benefits it will provide in the network are:
“Governance: Allows validated holders to influence protocols decisions.
Staking Rewards: Stake $TRADE to get rewarded
Borrowers: Receive reduced interest rates for staked and payment done via TRADE tokens.
Buyers: Receive discounts on invoices for settlements done on the Polytrade platform.
Service Providers: Receive TRADE for participating in the trade finance economy by performing key tasks of KYC, document validation, credit evaluation, and more (Phase 2)”
We will be having a total supply of 100 million tokens. We are performing certain final tweak to our model to ensure Polytrade gets the right visibility and benefits to our community. Our new tokenomics will soon be published before the IDO.
QUESTIONS TELEGRAM
@ShiriForhadIs this your project only for elite investors, how about others with small funds, is it open to everyone?
Piyush Gupta :
Project is to be driven by large number of crypto liquidity providers. So its definitely for the community. Large investors help in getting us visibility and partnerships. But project is open to each and everyone 😇
@fucteleHow do you plan to show the world that your product is not just useless blockchain solution to a non-existing problem?
Arul :
Our problem is not a blockchain only problem… its a 7 trillion USD industry… there is an unaddressed market of 1.6 trillion… trillion.. not billion or million… so there are many many opportunities for us to address… Most regular folks do not have ability to invest in trade financing as an industry at all..
Imagine giving the ability to a trader in an emerging market to liquidity and working capital without going to a big bank or a loan shark. The benefits to society overall is immense.
@kokikkkWhat is your plan to gain adoption fast enough that the market will not be saturated with other similar project by now and what advantage could you offer?
Arul :
A very valid question… yet again I will go back to the same numbers… its 7 trillion dollar industry… no single company can address all the latent demand for this product… The more competition comes, its better for us. The more people come to know about it and get comfortable with crypto the faster we can change and emerge winner in this space.
Based on current metrics and occurences in the crypto sphere we are confident that we would be one of the largest in TRade finance industry very soon. 🤞
@kokikkkWhat is thing of Polytrade project that cannot be found in your competitors’ projects?
Piyush Gupta :
Super awesome and experienced team. We have been in trade finance space for last 7 years and we have an impeccable reputation in the market. 🙌🏼
@dhonnobadRight now issuing a token is a rather simple process. However, building the system and ecosystem is the most difficult part. My question is, How will the demand of the token will increase and how will this token use within the ecosystem?
Arul :
Absolutely right. Token generation and IDO and Token price is not our ONLY goal… Our journey starts once the listing is completed, to carry all our investor trust. But we are confident.. We have worked for the last 6 years in this space and processed invoices worth 500mn USD and more. We have a ready database and borrower pool of more than 5000 waiting to come onboard Polytrade.
So we are not a short show… our goals are BIG and jorneu is long!
- Telegram : https://t.me/Polytrade_Finance
- Telegram Channel : https://t.me/PolytradeFinance_News
- Twitter : https://twitter.com/Polytrade_fin
- Website : https://polytrade.finance/
- Medium : https://medium.com/@Polytrade
Thank you for trusting Infinity Chain as the organizer of the event today, hopefully everyone can understand about POLYTRADE.
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