A Platform Built for Growth

Trade Ledger is a global technology company providing a modern lending platform designed to transform working capital finance. Their cloud-native platform enables banks and alternative lenders to deliver highly tailored lending products, such as invoice finance, asset-based lending, and supply chain finance, with faster approval times and greater operational efficiency.

The company serves some of the world’s largest commercial lenders and financial institutions, helping them digitise complex credit workflows, improve customer experience, and unlock new lending revenue streams.

With a growing international footprint and ambitions to scale, Trade Ledger made a strategic decision to build a Microsoft-aligned version of their core lending platform on Azure. This wasn’t just about cloud choice. It was about aligning with Microsoft’s ecosystem, enabling co-sell pathways, and preparing for enterprise-grade growth.

Building Securely, Without Slowing Down

Trade Ledger needed to stand up a production-ready Azure platform without disrupting their core delivery.

Their goals:

• Build a secure, scalable Kubernetes based environment aligned with Microsoft’s Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF)

• Embed governance, policy, and compliance from day one

• Reduce operational load on internal teams

• Support a GitOps approach for streamlined deployment

• Meet the prerequisites for Marketplace listing and co-sell programs

The Arkahna Solution

Arkahna partnered with Trade Ledger to design and deliver a greenfield Azure deployment fully aligned with Microsoft standards.

Using the Arkahna Platform's, Core Element, Arkahna provisioned a secure and governed Azure Landing Zone and built out a modern Kubernetes platform using AKS.

Delivered capabilities included:

• Production-ready AKS clusters across environments

• Infrastructure-as-code using Terraform for scale and repeatability

• GitOps model using ArgoCD and GitHub

• Integration with Azure-native services like Key Vault, Redis, and PostgreSQL

• Secure identity and access management with Azure AD (Entra) and Privileged Identity Management (PIM)

• Just-in-time access and audit controls

• “Access to Production” workflow aligned with existing AWS practices

• Knowledge-sharing workshops to support AKS adoption

What Happened Next

Trade Ledger’s Azure-native platform was delivered in just eight weeks, with built-in compliance, developer enablement, and Microsoft alignment.

Key Results at a Glance

Alan Walsh on Arkahna’s Microsoft Expertise

"What really sets Arkahna apart is their deep Microsoft experience. Josh and the team don’t just know the tech. They understand the systems, the partner programs, and how to navigate investment and funding opportunities as you scale. With their guidance, we stood up our Azure platform quickly and confidently, and unlocked well over six figures in incentives and support."
— Alan Walsh, Global VP of Channels & Marketing, Trade Ledger

Why Arkahna

Trade Ledger chose Arkahna for their ability to deliver secure, Microsoft-first infrastructure with business outcomes in mind.

We brought:

• A modular foundation built using the Core Element

• Secure-by-default design aligned to CAF, ISO, and NIST

• Infrastructure designed for developer enablement, not red tape

• Strategic guidance from ex-Microsoft leadership

Josh Boys, Arkahna’s CEO and former Azure Business Group Lead at Microsoft, brought firsthand experience that helped unlock funding, accelerate co-sell alignment, and fast-track Marketplace preparation.

Looking Ahead

This Azure deployment laid the foundation for Trade Ledger’s next milestone - launching successfully on the Microsoft Commercial Marketplace.

That next chapter, including their co-sell readiness and multi-year enterprise win with BOQ, is captured in Part 2 of the case study.