Fintech Bound launches intelligent hedging platform to protect SMEs
As UK businesses wrestle with soaring inflation and the unwelcome return of volatile exchange rates, help is finally at hand for the hundreds of thousands of SMEs currently unprotected from currency movements.
Launched in November and backed by a stellar cast of VCs and tech founders, Bound is an intelligent hedging platform that makes it simple and quick for any business to shield itself from yo-yoing exchange rates.
Its arrival comes after Britain’s annual rate of consumer price inflation spiked to 4.2% in October, 14 times what it was last November. With UK interest rates now expected to start rising as early as next week, currency volatility is increasing. In November sterling surged 1.6% against the Euro in just 48 hours, to reach a 21-month high.
Rapid shifts in exchange rates can be the difference between making a profit or a loss on any deal that involves buying foreign currency. That’s why 94% of the world’s largest 500 companies use hedging to manage their currency risk.
But hedging has long been seen as confusing and complicated, and only 4% of UK SMEs currently protect themselves this way. These are the businesses Bound was created to help.
Bound takes the complexity and stress out of hedging, making it easy for businesses of all sizes to control their currency risk. It offers a range of automated hedging tools that allow any firm making overseas payments to lock into the best exchange rates, and protect its bottom line if a currency’s value moves against them.
It takes just minutes for a business to register on the Bound platform, and the tech pedigree of its founders is apparent in its simple, jargon-free interface that integrates seamlessly with the accounting systems most commonly used by SMEs.
Seth Phillips, founder of Bound, commented: “Hedging with the big banks and forex brokers has traditionally been confusing and complicated, with processes designed for finance professionals rather than businesses. In addition, the predatory business practices used by some providers have scared many SMEs away from hedging.
“That’s where Bound comes in. Our mission is to use the power of tech to make hedging as accessible for everyday businesses as it is for the blue chips. Our always-on platform is a jargon-free zone and takes just minutes to set up, and once it’s running it works 24/7 to shield SMEs from currency volatility and lock in the best possible exchange rates.”
Stefan Cars, founder and CEO of Snowfall Travel added: “The travel industry is rife with currency risk but Bound makes that risk easy to manage for companies of our size. It’s a gamechanger for any SME trading internationally that is exposed to currency fluctuations. Best of all, it’s affordable, easy to set up and totally free of all finance jargon.”