Contour, launched in 2017 through a pilot by eight major global banks including HSBC, Standard Chartered, and BNP, aimed at the digitisation of trade. Presently, it is employed by over 22 banks and more than 100 global corporations, such as Tata Group and Rio Tinto, for digital trade finance solutions.

Xalts, renowned for enabling the creation of multi-party applications for digitisation and tokenisation, intends to adopt Contour’s established workflows and integrations to enhance interactions and transactions across its network of businesses and financial institutions.

In 2023, the value of global trade exceeded $30 trillion. However, digital trade's penetration is minimal, with less than 1% conducted digitally, as highlighted by QED Investors. The complexity and varied regulatory requirements of cross-border trade can necessitate up to 50 sheets of paper, exchanged among up to 30 stakeholders, including importers, exporters, banks, logistics, and customs, for a single transaction.

Amidst strengthening global trade and evolving traditional supply chains, Xalts draws inspiration from Silicon Valley innovators like Plaid and Stripe to hasten the digitisation of trade and supply chain finance. Ashutosh Goel, CEO of Xalts, stated, “Our goal is to become a Plaid for Trade. We aim to broaden Contour’s network, already trusted by banks and corporates, into a platform facilitating access to digital trade and supply chain finance solutions from banks, fintechs, and technology partners. Integrating our platform with Contour's Network will enable quick development and deployment of tailored solutions.”

Xalts's immediate focus will be on embedded trade and supply chain finance solutions, allowing banks, logistics, and technology firms to deliver integrated solutions to businesses through a unified platform.

Many global and regional banks have been making a push for deeper integrations with their clients and global platforms. In 2023, HSBC had announced a JV with Tradeshift to create embedded finance applications. “Our platform also enables institutions to build new innovative applications and products by leveraging blockchain and tokenisation. We partner with leading blockchains and integrate with multiple infrastructure providers to help our clients build tokenisation applications.” said Supreet Kaur, COO of Xalts. “Contour will also enable network members to work with us to launch applications in this space”.  

Xalts was founded in 2022 by Ashutosh Goel and Supreet Kaur, former senior executives at HSBC and Meta. Currently with a team of over 50 across offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, India, UAE and UK, Xalts counts large financial institutions, regulatory bodies and technology companies as its clients.

Abhinav Chaturvedi, Partner, Accel added: “Accel has backed innovative companies globally in this space. Xalts has demonstrated that they have the right vision and a team that can execute at a global scale very quickly.”

“Citi has long been a leader in driving innovation in financial services. We invested in Contour in 2020 and led the seed round for Xalts in 2022. The combination of these two companies into one firm with an expanded vision and a great leadership team will accelerate innovation in global trade finance.”, said Everett Leonidas, Director, Citi Ventures.

Carl Wegner, who was the CEO of Contour Network prior to this acquisition is expected to take a senior leadership role at Xalts. “I am really proud of what Contour has been able to accomplish in such a short time. The vision that Xalts has for Contour’s future turbocharges its strengths and addresses key client needs.”