Marketplace strategy

Building networks is highly valuable if they achieve scale, but challenging to initiate. Sumara’s core platform is designed with the foundation of a marketplace, yet our strategy prioritises focused growth to ensure long-term success and sustainability.

Focused Growth Approach:

Product-Market Fit:

Initial efforts are concentrated on finding product-market fit by solving the needs of one set of stakeholders—commodities importers. This focus allows Sumara to develop deep expertise, refine our offerings, and ensure we provide a solution that is 10x better than existing alternatives.

Learning from Alpha:

The Alpha product will target commodities importers, allowing us to gather insights and validate our approach. While this initial focus is on a single vertical, we remain open to customers from other sectors who discover and choose to use our platform.

Building a Marketplace in Phases:

Achieving an open, permissionless marketplace where all participants can interact is the ultimate goal. However, attempting to build this from day one is not viable. Historical evidence indicates that such premature attempts have led to the failure of several blockchain-based trade finance projects.

Iterative Expansion:

Once we achieve product-market fit and success in the commodities importer vertical, we will gradually expand to other elements of the marketplace. This includes enabling third parties to access and build on Sumara’s platform.

Third-Party Integration:

Future phases will involve integrating distributors (e.g., FX brokers) who wish to offer international trading tools to their clients.

We will also support third parties building novel solutions on our network, such as on-chain insurance and factoring, enhancing the overall ecosystem.

By adopting this phased approach, Sumara ensures focused, sustainable growth, allowing us to build a robust and scalable marketplace that meets the evolving needs of international trade finance.