Interledger Commits $4Million to Remove Financial Roadblock to Implementing Instant Payments
The Interledger Foundation, an organisation building and advocating for an open, interoperable payment network, is introducing a new initiative to fund fintechs that leverage its Interledger Protocol (ILP) to bring payment capabilities to emerging markets and underserved populations.
In an effort to help democratise the adoption of easy-to-use instant payments across the globe, the Interledger Foundation is dedicating $4million of its larger fund to companies that contribute to expanding its global interoperable payment network.
For many fintech companies expanding into new markets, serving underbanked populations isn’t just an ESG play – it is also an untapped source of new revenue. Extending their offerings to millions of small wallets can create big opportunities, while simultaneously promoting financial inclusion for people around the world. However, there are a number of barriers to entry, including high processing costs, currency translation fees and siloed payment networks, when introducing cross-border payments.
The Interledger Foundation’s open source ILP enables fintech companies to transcend these barriers so they can expand payments offerings to underserved populations with a cost-efficient, seamless network.
Briana Marbury, CEO at Interledger Foundation, said: “Organisations are always looking for untapped opportunities to expand their users and market share, but emerging markets and underserved populations have not always factored into their plans. This is, however, until they began realising that a mass amount of smaller transactions could amount to trillions of dollars.
“Pursuing these new financial opportunities also puts organisations in the unique position to contribute to a financially inclusive ecosystem along the way. Our mission is to help them do it by eliminating some of the financial roadblocks to making easy-to-use instant payments accessible to everyone.”
It explained that fintech firms interested in diversifying their existing or emerging payment platforms with cross-border payment options can become a part of this initiative at the Interledger Foundation’s website.
Funding fintechs to develop technical infrastructure
The Interledger Foundation’s newest funding initiative is aimed at attracting two types of fintech companies:
- Those that facilitate payment transactions
- Fintechs that receive payments via their applications
The organisation is committing $250,000 and $150,000, respectively, to cover some of the costs associated with developing the necessary technical infrastructure. Collectively, participants across digital financial services entities, including digital wallets, mobile money providers, banks, savings coops, neo-banks, ecommerce retailers and donation platforms, will contribute to Interledger Foundation’s greater work toward financial inclusivity across the world.
Interledger Foundation’s ILP and open standards serve as a building block for fintech innovation that meets underbanked populations by providing a cost effective means for payments.
Its ILP, co-created by early Bitcoin contributor Stefan Thomas, is an open, neutral protocol for transferring money based on TCP/IP, the protocol that defines the Internet. Integrating it enables organisations to transact money in milliseconds and process as many as one million transactions per second. Interledger’s
Open standards were developed in collaboration with financial service providers and standard bodies, such as The World Wide Web Consortium, as well as others that ensure the ILP remains democratised through consistent availability and accessibility.
