Union Bank of the Philippines (UnionBank), the country’s Best Digital Bank, is acquiring 30-percent stake in technology solutions firm Shiptek Solutions Corp, the developer of end-to-end digital logistics platform known as XLOG.
UnionBank, via its wholly owned technology and investments subsidiary UBX Philippines Corp., recently inked an agreement with Shiptek to formalize their strategic partnership. Shiptek is owned by the Ynion Group which has been in the logistics business for over two decades.
“As an industry leader in digital banking, we continuously endeavor to co-create innovations with like-minded companies who are as obsessed in forging transformative experiences for customers. We have long sought to serve the logistics sector, and with the onset of digitization, the introduction of platforms like XLOG, represents the industry's movement from traditional methods to electronic. And with such change, it is vital for the bank to continue to be relevant to its customers by being present,” said UnionBank President and CEO Edwin Bautista.
Meanwhile, UBX President and CEO John Januszczak added that UBX’s main thrust is to invest in complementary capabilities. The joint venture with Shiptek is UBX’s first investment deal.
“We are developing platforms to go to market with business models that are beyond banking. We will also invest in capabilities and platforms that share the same objective,” Januszczak said.
In an earlier interview, Shiptek founder and CEO Eugenio Ynion Jr. said the shipping and logistics market will reach over $4 trillion because the economies in the world are growing.
“Logistics is more than a trillion dollar industry. The new digital and logistics world is changing the game,” Ynion said.
With the alliance, the UnionBank Group will be integrating its e-commerce payment gateway and other digital financial services into Shiptek’s XLOG logistics platform.
UBX’s expertise in technology development and blockchain is seen to further power XLOG’s end-to-end supply chain solution that consolidates shipping, warehousing, trucking, and customs brokerage.
Ynion said the logistics industry is ripe for digitization.
“Our traditional manual processes - the many and winding paper trails, emails, phone calls, negotiations - they are no longer enough to keep up with today’s business landscape which demands logistics to be more agile. We need radical transformation to be globally competitive and going digital is the way to go,” he said.
Now working together, UnionBank, UBX and Shiptek Solutions can tap into each other’s expertise and customer network from SMEs to large-scale corporations. UnionBank will also be significantly involved in Shiptek’s daily operations, holding two out of five seats in the company’s Board of Directors.
Shiptek sees UnionBank’s support to help the company achieve its 50,000- 80,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) target for 2019. Since it started full operations late last year up to April 2019, it has generated over 10,000 TEUs.
No comments:
Post a Comment