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Ripple, Barclays and other investors have subscribed $ 1.7 million for SendFriend, a new start-up in remittances that will use XRP cryptocurrency to transfer funds to the public. international.
The New York-based company announced Monday that the Mastercard Foundation, the MIT Media Lab, Techstars, Mahindra Finance, 2020 Ventures and 8 Decimal Capital had also participated in the tour. Barclays participated through its "Barclays powered by TechStars" accelerator program, in which SendFriend was accepted last September.
The money raised will be used to hire staff, and will focus on community engagement and marketing, said SendFriend co-founder and CEO David Lighton.
SendFriend, which claims to have been founded at MIT, aims to serve foreign workers in the Philippines, using the XRP product and Ripple's xRapid product for cross-border settlements.
The company explained how it will work, stating:
"The XRP is used as a means of liquidity for cross-border payments, which allows SendFriend to bypbad the corresponding banking system and convert USD to XRP into PHP. [Philippine peso] in a few seconds. "
Not yet online, SendFriend has announced plans to launch in New Jersey soon, but will also be available in other US states via desktop and mobile applications.
Ripple confirmed that SendFriend will use the XRP token in a version last week. Lighton then said, "The existing banking match system is slow, inefficient and expensive."
In its financing announcement, SendFriend announced that it would offer a discounted fee of 65% compared to the average international remittances sector, as the blockchain "replaces the frictions and fees of the banking system".
Last week, the House of Representatives of the Philippines would have approved a bill to give Filipino overseas workers a 10-50% discount on remittance fees, based on the amount paid.
The Philippines is one of the largest Asian markets for remittances. Last year, the country's diaspora returned $ 34 billion to its country, according to a December World Bank report.
Barclays image via Shutterstock
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