68 per cent of businesses currently lack the appropriate tech infrastructure necessary to expand and need to be afforded with better solutions to operate internationally, according to industry experts at EBAday.

A higher 70 per cent of business owners have ditched expansion plans beyond the UK due to high trading costs, revealed the SME Empowerment Report from financial toolkit, HedgeFlows.

Speaking from EBAday in Madrid, Neh Thaker, Co-Founder of HedgeFlows, used his time presenting to delve into the reasons behind the untapped potential of SMEs in global trade and how HedgeFlows aims to bridge the gap, and empower these businesses to thrive.

“SMEs play a key part in every economy, and accessing international markets for supply chains and customers brings everyone immense benefits. However, without proper support, these businesses are unable to fully capitalise on these opportunities”, says Thaker.

Alex Axentiev, Co-Founder of HedgeFlows, added: “Many fixate on the visible costs of making foreign payments, such as currency conversions and payment fees, however, this represents only a fraction of challenges. There are also a multitude of financial pitfalls that remain hidden from view until it is too late to take preventive measures, leading to significant losses.”

This comes as research revealed that companies lose 4-5 per cent of their annual revenues due to payment inefficiencies and fragmentation when trying to operate in multiple geographies.

EBAday, which took place between the 20^th – 21^st June in Madrid, welcomed over 1, 300 senior industry participants from 39 countries to analyse topics including KYC, intra-day liquidity, real-time payments and trade finance, and meet trailblazing startups and entrepreneurs who are leading digital transformation.

On the 20^thJune, Neh Thaker and Alex Axentiev, Managing Directors of HedgeFlows, exhibited within the FinTech Zone Finalists, presenting the HedgeFlows’ toolkit’s innovative solutions.

Axentiev highlighted: “Doing business internationally can be a risky and unsettling process for SMEs and early-stage businesses, so it is vital that they have access to the resources and support to simpler financial planning, risk management and AP/AR automation across currencies.”

HedgeFlows is a financial toolkit that enables smaller companies to manage all their international finances on a self-service platform. All the way from invoice management and seamless payments through to expert risk management.

HedgeFlows presents banks with diverse partnership models to extend all these services to their SME customers.