Ripple Gains $55 Million In Series B Financing From More Banks
Ripple has secured $55 million in Series B financing from new investors that include SCB Digital Ventures (the venture arm of Siam Commercial Bank), Standard Chartered, Accenture Ventures and SBI Holdings. The company will use the funds to support growth and pursue strategic partnerships.
Other investors include Santander Innoventures, the venture arms of Seagate Technology and CME Group, and Venture 51.
The investment demonstrates new expertise from companies with hands-on experience with Ripple.
A Boost To Cross Border Payment
Chris Larsen, Ripple CEO, said the investment will support Ripple’s mission of making cross-border payments more efficient for customers and support the foundation of an Internet of Value, which moves money as efficiently as it moves information. “We’re thrilled to have these world-class investors joining forces with us to help make this vision a reality,” he said.
Ripple has received more than $93 million in funding.
The new investors join existing investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Jerry Yang’s AME Cloud Ventures, Google Ventures and IDG Capital Partners.
Bank Network Continues To Grow
Ripple’s global network includes 15 of the leading 50 global banks. The growing network has 10 banks in commercial agreement phases and has completed more than 30 bank pilots.
Alex Manson, global head of transaction banking at Standard Chartered, said the Ripple investment is part of a commitment to the bank’s digitization agenda. “Ripple is one of the most advanced distributed financial technology companies in the industry, with a tested and viable solution,” he said. By leveraging Ripple’s technology, financial service and compliance expertise, the bank can co-develop more use cases that will better serve customers and their ecosystems in a changing marketplace.
Richard Lumb, group chief executive for financial services at Accenture, said the two companies have worked together for some time, helping clients deploy distributed ledger technology. The benefits of this technology can extend further, with real-time reporting capabilities and fraud detection, bringing disruptive applications across industries.
Banks Pledge Their Support
Thana Thienachariya, chairman of Digital Ventures executive committee, said Siam Commercial Bank wants to take a pioneering role in piloting money transfers through Ripple’s network. He said his company’s participation makes Siam Commercial Bank the first Thai commercial bank to move forward with remittance and other blockchain use cases.
Yoshitaka Kitao, president and CEO at SBI Holdings, said distributed financial technology has already started to transform the financial system, and his company is anxious to help Ripple drive broader adoption of its solutions in Asia and globally. “Following the recent creation of our joint venture, SBI Ripple Asia and in light of incredible customer growth, we are very pleased to increase our investment in Ripple,” he said.
Ripple provides financial settlement solutions globally to allow parties to exchange value the way it already exchanges information, creating an Internet of Value. Ripple solutions decrease the cost of settlement by allowing banks to transact directly and with real-time certainty. It also allows customers the option of using digital asset XRP to further reduce liquidity costs.
Images from Shutterstock and Ripple.
