Sanzhar Kettebekov’s Vision: Empowering Trade with AI in the Volatile Food Market
I had the pleasure of interviewing Sanzhar Kettebekov, co-founder and CEO of Liquient. He has 25 years’ experience in AI and related technologies, and over 10 years at the C-level of driving large projects in various areas for economic development. Sanzhar and a team of highly experienced co-founders with tenure in global management consulting launched a new venture to tackle the foremost issue in the food supply chain.
What motivated you to launch your startup?
The idea came from our work on food and economic security when, after COVID-19, lots of countries in developing and emerging markets faced a sharp drop in food supply financing. With the rise of economic and some political uncertainties and volatilities of the local currencies, the cost of international trade went drastically up to include all cross-currency exchange and hedging costs. That cost, just to give you an idea, in some countries constituted almost 60% of their imported inflation on various food commodities. Which in turn has negatively impacted food prices at the consumer level, affecting stability across the globe.
What is it that excites you about what you’re building?
After funding more than 90 startups at the pre-seed level, I have finally created a project that encapsulates all the elements founders dream of. Liquient directly helps to solve one of the most burning issues of global food security, which has become a new reality after pandemics. Trade financing desperately needs a new architecture since more than half of food exports and a quarter of all imports belong to countries with volatile currencies. Our team has risen to this challenge by returning to economic and trade fundamentals to disrupt traditional models.
We are building an AI-powered trade financing platform that acts as an interbank clearance, netting export and import contracts for each currency. It enables traders to operate in their respective local currencies, saving as much as 10% on their international contracts. The methodology is not new; it is as old as trade itself, starting with barter. Liquient uses the latest developments in AI to calculate major risks and define financial terms at the contract level, pulling local financing from familiar financial institutions. The platform is particularly focused on medium and small traders that account for nearly $600 billion in food exports annually.
What has been your biggest challenge when growing your startup?
First, demand for our solution is enormous, and we are trying to cope with scale and required trade liquidity. This is a good problem to have. Second, banks are rather conservative due to the current economic climate, which pushes us to look for financial partners higher in the “food chain”. But at Liquient, we see it as an opportunity to make a global impact.
Other than that, it is a perfect time to gather a dream team to tackle such an ambitious project. And I think we are on track to do that.
What are your future plans for your startup?
Today, we are working together with a partner trader who has 30 years’ experience in international markets stretching from LATAM to ASIA. Next year we are planning to open our platform to other traders, adding new regions including the Middle East and North Africa.
If you had to share, “words of wisdom,” with a Founder who’s about to start their own startup, what would they be?
Since I was lucky to be at the cornerstone of national innovation development in one of the developing markets, it forces me to think of a global, and sustainable solution across markets. Of course, an idea gets you in the door, but execution and the team are the ones to capture the market share. And both of those are kind of prerequisites in the current realities.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
My best feed is on LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/davemount/. And you can follow Koor on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/koor-technologies-inc/) and X (@koor_tech).
