Ripple Labs announced a fresh investment in MoneyTap to drive more adoption and development in the Southeast Asia market.
On Wednesday, October 28, Japan’s biggest financial conglomerate SBI Holdings announced a fresh investment in San Francisco-based blockchain startup MoneyTap. MoneyTap is a blockchain-based money-transfer app launched in 2018 as a joint venture between Ripple and SBI Holdings.
Similar to Square‘s Venmo, MoneyTap also allows users to send and receive money via mobile number and QR codes. MoneyTap leverages Ripple’s blockchain-based global financial settlement network RippleNet. The services include overseas remittances, peer-to-peer transfers, as well as corporate payments.
With global trade reaching new heights, cross-border payment settlements and international remittances have still got delays. On the other hand, high transaction fees remains another concern. The RippleNet blockchain platform facilitates instant settlements by bridging the gap between fiat and remittance transactions.
The joint venture dubbed SBI Ripple Asia facilitates faster payment settlements at a low cost in countries like South Korea, Japan, and other parts of Southeast Asia. Although the details of Ripple’s investment in MoneyTap aren’t available, it will be used to drive more development and adoption. The press release notes:
“Through this latest investment by Ripple, Money Tap will further strengthen its partnership with Ripple and accelerate the development of new functions and new services including a small-amount collection service and corporate payment function, a community currency, an overseas remittance service, inbound and outbound remittance services, and a supply chain finance function, aiming to increase customer satisfaction through greater convenience”.
Getting More Players to Using MoneyTap
Part of the budget will also go to marketing efforts and convincing more players from the financial space to adopt the latest technologies. The press release notes:
“By forming an ecosystem with financial institutions, and business operators such as payment providers and fintech companies, Money Tap aims to realize a customer experience that allows customers to receive various services with peace of mind, convenience and at low prices.”
The long-term goal remains to form a consortium of 61 banks to use this app for their customers. Currently, the homeland of Japan seems to be MoneyTap’s biggest market in terms of customers. We expect MoneyTap to expand its footprint in the overseas market as well. Apart from Ripple, Japan’s second-largest bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) has also invested in MoneyTap.
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