Meet Or Kapelinsky, CEO of 40Seas: The AI-Powered Customer-to-Cash (C2C) Platform Purpose-Built For Global Trade

Tell us about 40Seas

Sure, 40Seas is an AI-powered Customer-to-Cash platform purpose-built for global trade. We unify the most critical sales and finance back-office pillars (Know-Your-Buyer, credit assessment, receivables, collections, payments, reconciliation, and settlements) into a single intelligent workspace.

By streamlining these workflows end-to-end, we want to help SMEs and digital exporters onboard buyers faster, reduce risk, accelerate cash flow, and scale cross-border business with confidence.

How did you come up with the idea for the company?

Well I’ve just recently joined the company as CEO, so the ideation credit must go to the founding team who saw how fragmented and inefficient global trade operations were, especially for SMEs. Processes like onboarding, credit checks, and collections were manual and siloed, creating unnecessary risk and slowing growth. By embedding intelligence into every step of the C2C cycle, we are delivering the kind of speed, visibility, and control global traders have long been calling out for.

Tell us about your core product or service.

At its core, 40Seas is about unifying onboarding, credit, payments, and reconciliation into one AI-driven platform. Digital KYB and real-time credit assessments accelerate deal cycles, automated receivables and dunning improve collections, while multi-currency payments and competitive FX reduce costs. AI-powered reconciliation ties it all together, giving traders a clear, real-time view of working capital. It’s like giving SMEs access to Fortune-500-level financial operations, without the overhead.

What most excites you about the trade finance industry?

For me it’s the ongoing shift from patchwork tools to truly integrated, intelligent systems. SMEs make up the backbone of global trade, but they’ve been underserved for too long. Now, with AI, we can move past “access to finance” toward smarter growth, helping businesses not only get paid faster, but actually operate with more confidence and predictability in global markets.

What has been the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome along the way?

I would say the hardest part is focus. Global trade has so many friction points, it’s tempting to solve them all at once. We’ve stayed disciplined by zeroing in on the C2C cycle, where risk, cash flow, and customer experience intersect. That’s where we can deliver immediate value to traders, while building a foundation to expand into other pain points step by step

What is your number one piece of advice to aspiring entrepreneurs?

In general trust takes time. Especially in finance and trade, you’re asking businesses to rely on you for mission-critical workflows. My advice would be to obsess over customer needs, prove value quickly, and don’t assume tech alone will win trust. Relationships and credibility are just as important as the product.

What can we hope to see from 40Seas in the future?

In the coming months you’ll see us doubling down on AI intelligence to make C2C fully automated, global, and scalable. We’re expanding multi-chain payment support, enhancing our developer tools, and continuing to build partnerships across logistics, sourcing, and marketplaces. The mission remains the same: give SMEs and digital exporters the tools to grow revenue safely, improve margins, and unlock cross-border opportunities with confidence.