Expand your business | Standard Chartered

Failure was not an option; I put in everything I had

Invisible author — Tue, 23 Apr 2019 02:05:17 +0000

I was raised in a typical farming village in Bazhong Nanjiang County in the Sichuan Province. Life was tough. At 16, I left for Chengdu (a city of nearly 15 million people) and found work helping with basic tasks in a restaurant kitchen.

After my long shifts, I would study for hours to improve myself. Eventually, the restaurant owner recognised my dedication. He took me under his wing and taught me to cook. I was 20 years old.

Never compromise, especially on your beliefs

I was grateful for this opportunity, but I knew this was only the beginning. I didn’t have much, but in 1998 I put everything I had into starting my own catering business. Failure was not an option.

As a supplier to school canteens, I felt personally responsible to provide safe, healthy meals to students. I insisted on serving only fresh, wholesome food. So, I set up my own supply chain to guarantee the quality of our produce and ingredients.

At the same time, I trained as a Chef and finally qualified as a Master Chef, but I knew I still had more to do: to fulfil my lifelong dream of developing a restaurant business.

"I started with nothing, but thanks to the support I've received, I feel we are making a difference, one step at a time"

Entrepreneurs need support to succeed

By now, I could see that I needed more than just a tasty broth. To really grow my business, funding was crucial.

With the advice and support of Standard Chartered, I expanded my company, Ya Feng Ge, and rapidly expanded my chain of high-end restaurants. But I never forgot my roots.

Today, I try to give something back to the community by supporting schools and villages. I also buy as much local produce as I can to support the farmers.

On life’s journey, we cannot choose our starting point, but we can choose our path. I started with nothing, but thanks to the great support I've received, I feel we are making a difference – one step at a time.

The entrepreneur journey is a long one. If you work hard and stay true to your original aspirations and values, you will succeed.

Virtual accounts: real-life benefits in real-time

David Rego — Fri, 05 Oct 2018 10:05:40 +0000

Ask a treasurer about their business and they will typically cite ‘number of bank accounts’ as a measure of the scale and complexity of a treasury function. But how valid a measure is this?

Every bank account brings complexity: it needs to be reported on and reconciled, balances managed, and authorised signatories maintained. Every account also has a related cost and represents a potential security risk without adequate oversight over signatories and balances.

With virtual accounts and virtual ledger solutions maturing and becoming more interconnected with liquidity management structures, however, this is changing. The sophistication of treasury can increasingly be measured not by how many accounts they have, but by how many virtual accounts they have.

One solution set to fit all sizes

Treasurers’ desire to reduce the number of physical bank accounts is not new. As a way of combatting the complexity of new physical accounts, many larger corporations have set up in-house banks, in which treasury provides banking services such as funding, investment and risk management to group companies. Treasurers are increasingly introducing payments-on-behalf-of (POBO) and/or receivables-on-behalf-of (ROBO) as part of an in-house bank. Under these arrangements, companies make payments or collect incoming flows ‘on behalf of’ group companies, removing the need for these entities to hold their own bank accounts. But the system is not frictionless – for example, suppliers may find it difficult to reconcile payments made by an entity different to the one they invoiced.

"Reconciliation and reporting are often the reasons companies choose to implement virtual accounts, but there can also be significant liquidity benefits"

The need to simplify and streamline cash and liquidity management is not limited to large multinational businesses. Scalable, accessible solutions are also required by smaller or less mature treasuries that have not yet built sophisticated in-house banking structures.

Consequently, virtual account solutions emerged, initially as a way of supporting automated reconciliation and then as a means of simplifying liquidity management for treasuries of all sizes and levels of sophistication.

Tangible benefits of virtual accounts

Companies can use virtual accounts in a variety of ways to meet their specific needs. Virtual accounts are linked to a single physical account. Treasurers and finance managers can set up as many of these accounts as they need and some banks even provide online account maintenance functions. For example, some companies choose to assign a virtual account to each customer, while others may assign them to their individual subsidiaries or divisions. Customers make payments to the virtual accounts but remittances are automatically routed to a single bank account, typically by currency. The account number is used as a reference field for automatic reconciliation, account posting and reporting purposes.

For both domestic and international companies, virtual accounts offer a range of advantages. The number of physical accounts can be rationalised, reducing cost, risk and administration. Automatic reconciliation rates are higher, and remittances can be posted immediately to customer accounts, freeing up credit lines more quickly.

"As companies expand and adopt new business models, the value proposition of holistic virtual account solutions is growing"

As companies expand geographically and acquire new entities, their liquidity management needs become more sophisticated, so virtual accounts become part of a broader treasury strategy, potentially also including cash pooling, POBO and ROBO. Treasuries can operate as in-house banks through virtual ledger accounts, combined with automated liquidity management structures that provide intercompany limit tracking and interest settlement. This is a cost-effective way of providing an in-house bank service, with less implementation effort than using physical accounts.

Real-time liquidity management

While reconciliation and reporting are often the reasons companies first choose to implement virtual accounts, there can also be significant liquidity benefits. In particular, by holding a single account rather than multiple accounts, cash is automatically centralised in one location, with balances available for use as soon as remittances are credited to the bank account. With many countries moving to domestic FAST (Fast and Secure Payments) and the SWIFT gpi (global payments innovation) initiative resulting in faster credit of cross-border payments, the ability to reconcile accounts receivables in real time is critical. This capability, allied with solutions like just-in-time cross-border sweeps, allows clients to centralise cash and deploy it for payments exactly when needed.

There are inevitably issues to consider when implementing any new cash or liquidity management solution, including regulatory, tax and currency implications. The need to manage the cost of change, such as communicating new settlement instructions to customers and adapting systems also needs to be factored in.

However, as companies continue to expand internationally and adopt new business models, the value proposition of holistic virtual account solutions, combined with automated and increasingly real-time liquidity solutions, is growing.

Crucially, companies can build in additional services progressively, without disruption, as their needs evolve and new opportunities and demands emerge.

Cash management for the Amazons and Ubers of the world

Shirish Wadivkar — Wed, 07 Mar 2018 12:55:09 +0000

Some of the world’s best-known companies are in what’s known as the platform business.

They have existed for the past 20 years or so, but how products and services are produced, shared, delivered and consumed has radically changed in this time.

The first decade, around the mid-1990s, was dominated by e-commerce companies, such as Amazon, where physical goods were sold via an online portal. E-commerce then developed further into e-marketplaces, with the likes of eBay enabling individuals to exchange goods and services on their platform.

The second decade, from the mid-2000s, saw the blossoming of the sharing/rent economy, with rapid growth in the number of platform companies such as Airbnb. Most recently, the gig economy has developed, with platforms such as TaskRabbit and Uber. These businesses do not carry inventory, but their value is to create the marketplace or network which connects supply and demand. Consequently, the bigger the network, the greater their value.

Unique cash management needs

Such distinctive business models lead to unique cash management requirements. With payments, traditional businesses tend to aggregate supplier and employee payments into scheduled payment runs. Salaries, for example, are paid on a fixed weekly or monthly schedule with a reasonably steady value. Platform businesses, with ’fluid’ buyers and suppliers, become more fragmented, with many ad-hoc transactions of varying, often low value. Collections also differ considerably, with the need to process high volumes of electronic incoming payments quickly, often from different countries and of different types – from credit and debit cards to digital wallets.

A large e-commerce operating in or looking to expand into multiple countries needs to engage with multiple buyers and sellers or payment service providers, and comply with different regulations in each location. This is a challenge for those seeking to expand across regions with significant regulatory, market and cultural diversity, such as ASEAN or South Asia.

"Platform businesses have blown the traditional way of doing business out of the water"

Rising to the challenge

Such conditions are ripe for what’s known as application programming interfaces (API) banking. The benefit is that it gives platform businesses secure, seamless, real-time machine-to-machine payments. The potential is so big that banks like ours are rising to the challenge of developing such banking technology.

Consumers have come to expect a seamless experience when using these companies’ platforms, and there is no reason why the Amazons, eBays and Ubers of the world shouldn’t expect the same from their bank.

Platform businesses have blown the traditional way of doing business out of the water, and as new ways of doing business evolve so will companies’ cash management needs.

This file opens in a new windowDownload our report for more

Managing risk in emerging markets

Invisible author — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 09:10:16 +0000

Emerging markets have always required a different approach to doing business. Their market infrastructure is often less established, and many face significant geopolitical risks. However, today’s global economic headwinds are making these challenges more pronounced, requiring companies to change tack.

When multinationals first entered heavily commodity-dependent emerging markets, such as Nigeria, many made strong profits and hedging their risks was not a priority.

Today, by contrast – amid high levels of volatility and fast-changing regulations – firms must be more pro-active than ever in managing the most urgent risks, such as foreign exchange, regulator, operational, credit and supply chain volatility.

Take a global approach

Each emerging market is developing at a different pace. For example, some have characteristics of developed economies, with liberalised foreign exchange regimes for current account hedging, but their capital account may be opening more slowly. Corporate treasurers need to stay abreast of these changes to make the most of them.

This should not result in a fragmented approach, however, by taking a global approach based on realistic insights into each geography, treasurers will be better able to manage risk across the enterprise.

Our report recommends reviewing foreign exchange risk policies on an ongoing basis, rather than annually or another defined interval. And, where feasible, that the policy considers the use of hedging instruments that are particularly designed to manage higher currency volatility, such as currency options.

Managing challenges

To better manage credit challenges, we recommend centralising credit and collection monitoring wherever possible. This will help build a global risk picture and establish common processes and controls.

From a supply chain perspective, consider where delays in the financial supply chain currently occur, and how these could be resolved, such as financing a distributor’s working capital needs, or introducing more efficient payment and collection methods.

With growth prospects in developed markets such as Europe and North America, lackluster, multinationals are continuing to look to emerging markets for opportunities. But to make the most of these, companies will need to find new ways of managing risk.

Our report, ‘Managing risk in emerging markets’, offers companies currently conducting business in emerging markets, or seeking to do so, tips and advice. Download a copy here.

Banking the Ecosystem™

Alex Manson — Thu, 22 Sep 2016 12:39:20 +0000

Typically, when a bank serves a large company, it focuses on that particular client, rather than how it can support the wider supply chain of businesses on which the company depends. The evolution in global trade, however, suggests this approach to banking may be missing a trick.

In recent years, corporate supply chains have become significantly more complex. Every connection in an industry supply chain – whether it’s a small or medium-sized supplier, a large international distributor or a local ‘mom and pop’ retailer – is critical. A delay or break at any point could interrupt production or result in a short term funding gap.

Consequently, corporates have begun to look beyond their organisational boundaries to assess whether their supply chain ecosystem is equipped to help them grow and compete in a challenging business environment.

What banks must do

Banks – if they truly want to support global trade – should do the same, adjusting their lens to focus on whole communities, rather than single clients.

A number of banks have introduced supply chain financing, but still focus on the needs of large corporate clients. Take supplier financing for example: banks’ engagement with suppliers is typically to onboard them to the programme, rather than working with them to understand their supply chain and financing needs – including how their growth is linked to that of their customer – and devising solutions accordingly.

"Treasurers and finance managers are increasingly demanding solutions from their banks"

But this will have to change. Treasurers and finance managers are now increasingly demanding solutions from their banks that integrate financing, automated processes, and efficient, data-rich transaction and information flows. They also need banks that have the footprint, capacity and appetite which matches the needs of their suppliers and buyers.

These supplier and buyers are typically small and medium-sized enterprises – a segment that is under-served. Why? Most global banks restrict their target customer base outside their home market to multinational corporations, while banks that support a wider spectrum of business customers, such as regional and local banks, typically lack the network to serve a global supply chain. Also, banks are often organised into silos to support different customer segments, blocking a more holistic approach.

How does our Banking the Ecosystem approach to banking services work?

To take an example, a large manufacturer looking to expand production may be hindered by constraints in key suppliers’ capacity. It is more difficult and costly for some of these suppliers to access financing, than it is for the large corporate they supply to. As such, the solutions available to these suppliers are typically plain vanilla post shipment finance.

However, if the manufacturer’s bank took an ecosystem approach (not only to financing, but also to services such as payments and collections), it would overcome these obstacles and offer best fit rather than single-product solutions.

Positioning for growth

As each market, and industry, continue on their economic journeys, and commercial models evolve in line with new technologies and customer expectations, clients’ ecosystems will need to adapt. And for banks like Standard Chartered, this means delivering services to all customer segments in a client’s ecosystem and co-developing solutions for not just large corporates, but for their supply chains partners too, ultimately to facilitate trade and connect business communities.

My big break – my adventurous spirit drove me to success

Invisible author — Mon, 05 Sep 2016 07:41:51 +0000

Company snapshot

Name: African Touch Safaris
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Turnover: USD8 million
Number of employees: 80

How it all began

I am by nature adventurous and like to make things happen. It’s important to me to do something I enjoy, and to be financially independent. I got interested in the travel business as my neighbour, who was my mentor, ran a travel agency and I had a cousin who used to organise African tours. Kenya’s tourism industry was booming in the late 1990s. I knew this represented a huge opportunity for me to start my own company, and was determined to make travel simple, worry-free and fun. So with the support of my husband, I launched African Touch Safaris in 1998. Today, our award-winning company has four branches across Kenya and is the market leader in outbound international tours and travel.

My toughest lesson

I learnt the hard way that it is important to put in place proper systems and processes. In 2008 we set up a branch in western Kenya – Eldoret – and hired staff to get the agency up and running. It did very well in the beginning – our daily turnover was well over KES500,000. Sadly, the good times didn’t last. Because we didn’t introduce proper monitoring controls, and our customers mostly paid in cash, some of our employees stole from us. The fall-out was crushing. Besides the monetary loss, we lost customers, some of whom were staff members and family. It taught me a lesson that will stay with me forever.

My biggest regret

My biggest regret is not having gone into business earlier. I was 39 when I launched African Touch Safaris and will be 59 this year. I had so much energy in my younger years. When I think about the hours and years I wasted working for other people, I truly believe I could have achieved so much more.

My lightbulb moment

We initially started the business as a company for tours around Kenya. But fierce competition made it extremely hard to do well. We could hardly make ends meet and my husband even had to fund the business through his salary as a civil servant. We were about to close when I decided to try a new business strategy – to do outbound tours for Kenyans. It was the opposite of what everybody was doing, but I saw a gap. I had no experience in arranging tours abroad, but my tenacious streak helped me get the right contacts to organise the logistics and market the tours. It was a turning point for us as the response was overwhelming. The business was finally able to raise enough money to run itself. Crucially, I no longer had to ask my husband for money.

Finding funding

Our biggest challenge when starting up was getting sufficient funds to grow the business quickly. Whatever we earned, we had to plough back into the business in order to maintain cash flow. Standard Chartered’s finance facility allows us to pay our suppliers before our customers pay up, giving us some breathing space. This funding has been instrumental in helping us grow the business, and it certainly helps reduce our stress levels. The personal touch of our relationship manager also helps address our issues. She always listens to our needs and tailors solutions for our rapidly growing company, such as helping us manage foreign exchange more efficiently.

I owe my success to

My family, first and foremost: my husband for all his support, and my children, most of whom work with me. I’m also thankful to my finance partners and my customers for their continued support and for believing in my business.

Standard Chartered has been providing business banking services to African Touch Safaris since 2013.

Our big break: from students to entrepreneurs in six months

Invisible author — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 11:13:33 +0000

Company snapshot

Name: Smartprix
Founders: Abhinav Choudhary and Hitesh Kumar
Location: New Delhi
Number of employees: 25-30

How it all began

We started Smartprix in our third year at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi. That was back in 2011, a time when the smartphone market was innovating at a very fast pace, and it was getting increasingly difficult for the average customer to choose between the different phones on offer. We saw a gap in the market to help consumers save time and money by comparing options on a single platform. From smartphones we expanded our product range to over 5,000 electronic products. We help buyers find the products they need, then direct them to various online electronic retailers, including Amazon, Snapdeal, Flipkart and others. We can’t believe our little college venture has grown to attract 25-30 million people each month.

Our toughest lesson

The most important lesson we learnt was to always stay ahead of the game. If a competitor is doing something better than you, it means you are not working hard enough. Back at college when we first started the business, our toughest challenges were time and money, but this ended up being an advantage as it compelled us to become more efficient – the survival of our start-up depended on it. We relied on using and developing technology wherever we could, to eliminate the possibility of errors. We both wrote programmes and our efficient approach meant it took us just 5-6 months to set up the website.

Our biggest regret

If we had to do something differently, we would have hired people sooner. To scale up a new venture like ours, having a good team is essential. We delayed building a team by a year because we were focusing on getting the technology right. We are now hiring from technical colleges across India and hope to double our staff numbers to 60-70 people this year.

Our lightbulb moment

During our final year at IIT, we were lucky enough to have investors approaching us, but they demanded revenue numbers, and ours were not big. So we started selling advertisements on our platform, which helped us to generate attractive returns in no time. However, the biggest turning point for us was when Amazon entered India’s e-commerce market in 2013. This revitalised the whole industry, majorly boosting our revenues.

Finding funding

In the beginning, we funded our business out of our pocket money. After we graduated, getting funding to scale our start-up was not difficult since investors were keen to invest in the e-commerce industry. The difficulty came in choosing the best investor to support our growth ambitions. Once we found the right seed funding partner we began working on our venture full time. Then came day-to-day challenges around managing payments and transactions, which is when we partnered with Standard Chartered. They helped make our transactions more efficient and hassle-free, and everything, from money transfers to our employment payroll, runs smoothly now, thanks to their fast service.

We owe our success to

Our university, IIT Delhi, for helping us take the first steps on our entrepreneurship journey. We learnt many things from the brilliant people around us, including our fellow students and professors, and we would not be where we are today without that experience.

Standard Chartered has been providing business banking services to Smartprix since 2015.

My big break: ‘no’ is not in my dictionary

Invisible author — Tue, 05 Jul 2016 06:40:41 +0000

Company snapshot

Name: The Garage School, a Safi Benevolent Trust project
Location: Karachi, Pakistan
Number of employees: 47

How it all began

The Garage School is actually my late husband’s – Flight Lieutenant Syed Safi Mustafa – dream. It’s a tribute to him and his memory. He was convinced that a good education leads to better opportunities in life, and wanted to give underprivileged children the chance to change their destiny. His dream became a reality in November 1999 when a young girl I knew, Somia, eager to learn and change her destiny was denied admission into a school just because she was not fortunate enough to read or write. Luckily, the word ‘no’ is not in my dictionary. I felt a deep urge to help her, and The Garage School was born. I started teaching 14 children from my community in my garage. That was the beginning of the journey and we have not looked back since. Today, we teach 550 underprivileged children in Karachi.

My toughest lesson

I was not prepared for how popular the school would become. More and more parents brought their children to attend as they thought the school was as an ideal opportunity to keep their children off the streets. A few years later, my garage was no longer big enough to accommodate our student numbers and pressure from parents about the lack of space was mounting. I realised it was time to rent a space and found one in Karachi’s Neelum Colony. Suddenly, with the bigger space, I could fulfill our aim of becoming a hub for academic training, medical treatment and social well-being for the underprivileged communities in the surrounding area.

Finding funding

The first year was tough on finances. I was funding the school completely on my own. I opened my first account with Standard Chartered, with just a few thousand rupees. When awareness about my project grew after the first year and student numbers increased, I convinced personal and professional contacts that the school was a worthy cause and slowly but gradually procured funding, which in turn let me set up additional classes and employ more teachers. Eventually, as the project kept growing, we partnered with Standard Chartered to open a Trust account, making it easier for us to pool our funding and manage the day-to-day costs of running the school.

I owe my success to

My late husband. I started the school to honour his dream of providing underprivileged children with a great education. I also owe my success to the families and friends who gave me a chance, especially in the first year, to the children who worked so hard to learn and have gone on to achieve great things, and to Standard Chartered for being a supportive financial partner.

Standard Chartered has been providing business banking services to The Garage School since 2006.

My big break: starting a business with my friends

Invisible author — Thu, 16 Jun 2016 06:27:01 +0000

Company snapshot

Name: Sentrim Contracts
Founders: Harij Hirani, Ravish Varsani and Virij Kerai
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Turnover: USD24 million
Number of employees: 200

How it all began

The three of us first met working for a construction company in Kenya, and it wasn’t long before we discovered we had a common dream. Our fathers had all been in the construction industry, so you could say that construction is in our blood. But while our families found success in smaller building projects, we had the appetite for something much bigger. We set up Sentrim Contracts in 2004, starting out with small maintenance jobs to get us going, but quickly winning a succession of larger projects. Today, we are one of Kenya’s leading construction companies, focusing on housing and commercial properties.

Our toughest lesson

For any company, it is very important to never borrow beyond your means. The last five years have been difficult for our business. Due to the challenging economic situation in Kenya, some customers have had trouble paying for their construction projects. Luckily, we have not overextended ourselves, avoiding unnecessary borrowing costs. We have also been conservative in taking on new projects, only working with customers we know well and who are financially stable. And we only work with trusted suppliers whom we can rely on to deliver.

Our lightbulb moment

Shortly after starting the company, we won our first large-scale project – to build a hotel in Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve, worth half a billion Kenyan shillings. We were ecstatic, seeing our chance to get our new company on the map. It wasn’t a simple job, though. The site was almost five hours from Nairobi and in the bush, so we had difficulty with logistics and staffing the build. We decided to be positive, seeing the challenges as opportunities to show that we could handle even the most testing jobs. Despite a very compressed timeline of four months, we completed the project on time and the client was very happy with the results. Soon after, we were winning bids for other big construction projects.

Finding funding

Starting a new company comes with many obstacles and finding funding is certainly one of the biggest challenges. Luckily, we have had the backing of Standard Chartered since we started Sentrim. This has been immensely helpful in managing our cash flow since we usually have to pay our suppliers before we are paid by our customers. Also, things move fast in the construction business. Being able to process everything online and transfer funds between banks in a day helps us to deliver projects on time.

We owe our success to

Our fantastic team at Sentrim. It’s thanks to their hard work that we’re able to meet our customers’ high expectations year after year.

Standard Chartered has been providing business banking services to Sentrim Contracts since 2004.

My big break: turning my childhood passion into a business

Invisible author — Tue, 03 May 2016 08:32:58 +0000

Company snapshot

Name: Toyeast Limited
Location: Hong Kong
Turnover: HKD17 million
Number of employees: 9

How it all began

As a child, I loved collecting model cars and I would rush to the toy car section whenever I was in the department store. I always dreamt of creating my own brand, selling good quality model cars that would help kids develop great childhood memories. While at university, I bought model cars from toy stores, resold them on eBay, and discovered I could make a tidy profit. This small venture grew when I left university and I started Toyeast in 1998. Soon I was taking on staff, selling to overseas collectors and being approached by wholesalers. It was at this point I decided to produce my own brand of model cars to sell overseas. Today we sell our remote-control model cars in over 20 overseas markets, with distributors in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Russia and the US.

I turned my hobby and passion into a business, and can easily see myself doing this for the rest of my life.

My toughest lesson

I learnt the hard way that it’s better to take a conservative approach and plan properly. In 2007, after nine years in business, I decided to target the high-end model car market – a segment in which I had no experience and where cars sell for more than USD1,000 a piece. I took in orders, trusting that our manufacturer could deliver to the high standards required. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. I tried to get the quality right, even going as far as having my entire team supervise production in the Mainland China factory. But in the end, the client returned most of the model cars. We lost a huge sum of money, and more importantly, we lost a valued customer. I learnt how important it was to have a Plan B and prepare for the worst.

My biggest regret

I seldom regret my business decisions, even if they fail. As a start-up, it’s natural to fail. What’s important is that you learn from your mistakes and don’t repeat them. Entrepreneurs should always be adventurous and eager to try new things. You shouldn’t fear failure, otherwise how will you charter unexplored territories?

My lightbulb moment

Running the eBay trading business, my staff worked until 9.30pm every day, while I carried on until 2-3am. Yet, fierce online competition meant we could barely meet our overheads. So, after 18 years of running an e-commerce business on eBay, I decided to change our business model. Making the decision to focus on developing my own brand of products for the wholesale toy market was the most successful turning point of my life. My staff and I now spend more time with family, and our business is profitable.

Finding funding

In the online world, you only need a small amount of money to start your business. All I needed was an email account, a camera and a credit card. But in 2007, we were greatly impacted by the global financial crisis and made a loss of HKD300,000. I realised that the downturn could cost me my business, and that I needed help. It was the first time I borrowed money from a bank. Despite Toyeast being loss-making, Standard Chartered was prepared to give us a loan, taking into account other factors such as our track record of profitability, business plans and customer pipeline. We had a dedicated relationship manager who understood our business. The loan and support saved my company.

I owe my success to

My parents for giving me unconditional love and financial support. My team, some of whom have worked for Toyeast for eight to 10 years, for standing by me through good times and bad. And Standard Chartered, for not only providing me with funding, but for helping me to grow my business.

Standard Chartered has been providing business banking services to Toyeast since 2007.