From SOMA to São Paulo: How This SF Tech Entrepreneur Built a $200M Global Trade Platform

In a modest office overlooking the Bay Bridge from SOMA, Maya Chen has built something Silicon Valley often overlooks: a business that makes international trade actually work for the little guy.

Chen's company, TradeWeave, launched from a converted warehouse on Harrison Street in 2021 with a simple observation. While tech giants extract value from global supply chains, small and mid-sized manufacturers in emerging markets struggle to find reliable buyers. Meanwhile, Bay Area importers waste thousands vetting suppliers across fractured platforms.

"I watched my uncle's textile factory in Fujian spend 40% of his time on buyer sourcing," Chen explained during a recent conversation at Philz Coffee on Market Street. "Meanwhile, a furniture importer two miles from our office was overpaying middlemen. The inefficiency was shocking."

Today, TradeWeave operates across 12 countries, connecting over 3,400 manufacturers with roughly 8,000 Northern California and Pacific Northwest buyers. The platform handles approximately $340 million in annual transaction volume—up 67% from last year—and charges a transparent 2.5% commission on deals.

The growth reflects broader shifts in global commerce. Recent trade tensions have pushed companies to diversify sourcing beyond China and Mexico, while tariff uncertainty has made supply-chain visibility more critical. TradeWeave's video inspection tools, blockchain-based payment verification, and real-time logistics tracking address pain points that conventional brokers have ignored.

The company's success also reflects San Francisco's unique position as a gateway to Pacific Rim trade. Unlike coastal competitors in Los Angeles or Seattle, San Francisco combines deep shipping infrastructure with proximity to venture capital and tech talent—advantages Chen leveraged by recruiting engineers from Meta and Stripe to build her platform.

TradeWeave raised $45 million in Series B funding this spring, with backing from Sequoia Capital and Salesforce Ventures. The capital will fund expansion into West Africa and Southeast Asia, where Chen sees the greatest opportunity for manufacturing clusters currently shut out of formal supply chains.

The company now employs 180 people across offices in San Francisco, Mexico City, Ho Chi Minh City, and Nairobi. Yet Chen remains anchored to the city's Mission District, where she grew up and where TradeWeave's core team still gathers weekly at the SOMA headquarters.

"International trade shouldn't require a Rolodex and a lot of luck," Chen said. "It should be a level playing field. That's what we're building."

This article was compiled by AI from the sources linked above and screened before publishing. See our editorial standards.