TradeSun Acquires Coriolis Technologies – San Diego Business Journal
LOGISTICS: Platform Scores ESG Compliance in Supply Chain
TradeSun is equipping itself with the tools needed to help meet ESG goals in the global supply chain.
Last month, San Diego-based TradeSun – provider of artificial intelligence solutions for trade compliance and automation – announced it had acquired data company Coriolis Technologies, to expedite ESG-compliant trade.
Coriolis’ ESG platform automates and standardizes the scoring of supply chain players against regulatory frameworks, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation.
The strategic acquisition will allow the TradeSun network of global and regional banks around the world to expand with further innovation across trade and the supply chain and follows a partnership agreement between TradeSun and Coriolis earlier this year.
“With regulations evolving fast to mandate sustainable commerce, banks will increasingly play a more central role in facilitating and guiding the trade ecosystem to adopt more sustainable practices,” said TradeSun CEO and founder Nigel Hook.
Following the acquisition, TradeSun will deliver Coriolis’ ESG products, including the independent ratings-based platform developed with more than 50 financial institutions. The platform uses an intelligent algorithm that scores, monitors and verifies supply chain players against the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, as well as other key regulatory frameworks such as the EU Taxonomy. The scores indicate how a business is performing against the various frameworks and whether action is needed in specific areas.
“For example, the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation includes carbon footprint and board gender diversity,” Hook said. “By using this tool, companies know if they meet the frameworks and for those with many suppliers feeding into them, they can understand ESG risk and manage appropriately.”
The platform also facilitates supply chain transparency by measuring ESG impact throughout all tiers in trade supply chains.
“Given the complexity and minimal transparency across the supply chain, being able to understand and score different companies based on compiled information against regulatory frameworks will support banks and businesses on their sustainability journeys, and in better managing risk, as they, their shareholders, and authorities sharpen the focus on ESG,” Hook said.
ESG platforms like the one developed by Coriolis are important to global sustainability goals, Hook said, because the global supply chain and trade industries are inherently complex with negligible transparency, resulting in “subpar and inconsistent practices with regards to ESG issues.”
Hook pointed to the illegal mining, logging and deforestation that occurs across some commodity supply chains as an example. “This is owing to several reasons – one being minimal transparency over the operation, particularly at the lower tiers of the supply chain,” he said. “A bank financing an electric car company, say, may not realize that the cobalt sourced for products involved labor exploitation and poor environmental practices.”
Coriolis founder Rebecca Harding described the acquisition by TradeSun of the platform as “an exciting development and a significant measure of the importance of ESG in trade finance.”
“Global trade must have the tools to better measure ESG impact in order to meet increasingly ambitious sustainability targets set by governments and industry,” she said. “The acquisition of Coriolis will support and take forward the vision and roadmap for automated ESG scoring and more sustainable trade.”
Although the terms of the Coliolis acquisition were not disclosed, Hook said it was the first in a plan for TradeSun’s “wider vision” for “safe, seamless and sustainable trade for all.”
“Going forward, we will be scaling up the Coriolis ESG platform, developing new and relevant products for global trade and business, as well as continuing to grow the core TradeSun business,” he said.
As part of the deal, Harding will act in a strategic consulting capacity going forward and key Coriolis team members will stay on to continue their work.
TradeSun
Founded: 2018
CEO: Nigel Hook
Headquarters: Del Mar
Business: AI platform for trade compliance and financial crime prevention
Employees: 68
Website: www.tradesun.com
Notable: CEO Nigel Hook was selected for the FBI’s Citizens Academy, a program that teaches business leaders how crimes are investigated.
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