Canadian blockchain startup DLT Labs announced a deal with Japanese digital bank SBI Sumishin Net Bank (SSNB) to jointly offer a blockchain supply chain finance (SCF) solution in Japan. DLT Labs also provides a blockchain freight solution in Canada for Walmart.
SBI Sumishin Net Bank (SSNB) is a neobank joint venture between SBI Holdings and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank. Regular readers of Ledger Insights will be aware that SBI Holdings is one of the most active groups in the world when it comes to blockchain and digital assets. Through its many ventures, such as Money Tap, it has close relationships with many other Japanese banks that might want to take advantage of the DLT Labs solution.
Some large Japanese retailers and carriers have been invited to join a supply chain finance pilot in Japan during the current quarter, and it’s planned to go into production soon. The companies expect to reap benefits seen elsewhere in supply chain finance solutions, including enabling a lower cost of financing for suppliers. It can provide a new source of income for banks by granting more credit both to the supplier and the large corporate adopting the solution.
According to DLT Labs, it’s deploying an existing SCF solution. Its website lists several ready-built supply chain solutions, but SCF isn’t one of them. The Walmart solution was built on Hyperledger Fabric, but the company also uses Ethereum. In contrast, SBI Group has technology joint ventures with Ripple and enterprise blockchain firm R3.
DLT Labs launched in 2017 and has its head office in Canada with multiple software development offices in India.