US XRP Receives New Investments
Global remittance start-up SendFriend has received $1.7 million in pre-seed funding by 13 participants.
SendFriend was founded by a group of people with experience in The World Bank. MoneyGram, MIT, and Harvard Business School. The US company is offering next-generation remittance service, claiming its service is one of the smartest ways to send money to the Philippines. The new investments will be used to better enable Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) to securely transfer USD to PHP at low rates, as SendFriend writes in their press release.
The money comes from MIT Media Lab, Barclays, the Mastercard Foundation, Ripple, Techstars, Mahindra Finance, 2020 Ventures, and 8 Decimal Capital.
Last years, millions of migrants in the US have sent home more than $650 billion in remittances and paid more than $45 billion in fees. SendFriend claims it is the only option for OFWs to securely and reliably send money internationally with fees that are 65% lower than the average ones in the industry.
SendFriend has worked with blockchain company Ripple to leverage xRapid and create a seamless money transfer experience. XRP has been used as a liquidity vehicle for cross-border payments, as the press statement explains. Basically, what the service does is to convert USD to XRP to PHP in a matter of seconds.
“SendFriend has built strong partnerships along its supply chain, while developing a foundation to significantly minimize friction in the system. This is a highly competitive space with longtime incumbents, but we are confident in the success of SendFriend.”, as the Founder of 8 Decimal Capital, Yuan Ruan commented.
“SendFriend has a good combination of an experienced team, large $650 billion remittance market, investors that provide more than just capital, and a growth strategy focused on more than revenue from transactions including APIs and white-label solutions.”
Commenting on the fresh investments, SendFriend co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, David Lighton, has said that his team is humbled by the support of the investors.
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