The Interledger Foundation, an organisation dedicated to the creation of an open, interoperable payment network, is promising to fund fintechs that use its protocol to bring payments to emerging markets and underserved populations.
The Interledger Foundation is building and advocating for a network where transactions are not limited to a particular bank, mobile money provider or location, bringing digital financial services to the 1.4 billion people currently excluded from traditional banking systems.
It aims to do this through the Interledger Protocol (ILP), co-created by early bitcoin contributor Stefan Thomas. The organisation works with partners to integrate its ILP into existing and emerging financial and payments infrastructures.
Pulling from its $100 million fund, it is now offering to use $4 million to fund fintechs that tap the open source ILP, covering the cost of configuring their existing infrastructure for interoperability.
The offer is aimed at two types of firms: those that facilitate payment transactions; and those that receive payments via their applications. The organisation is committing funds of $250,000 and $150,000, respectively, to cover some of the costs associated with developing the necessary technical infrastructure.
Briana Marbury, CEO, Interledger Foundation, says: “Organizations 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 realizing that a mass amount of smaller transactions could amount to trillions of dollars.
“Pursuing these new financial opportunities also puts organizations 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.”