Ripple, Mastercard and Barclays Invest in Ripple-Based Remittance Firm SendFriend

Remittance company SendFriend has received investments from Ripple (XRP), the Mastercard Foundation, MIT Media Lab and Barclays in a funding round, according to a press release published on Feb. 11.

In the round, the firm raised $1.7 million from investors — also including Techstars, Mahindra Finance, 2020 Ventures and 8 Decimal Capital — to develop its remittance service, which lets users send money to the Philippines using blockchain.

SendFriend uses Ripple’s xRapid product for cross-border payments, converting between USD, XRP and Philippine pesos and circumventing the longer process of traditional banking systems.

The press release claims that SendFriend will feature “fees that are 65% lower than the industry average.” David Lighton, SendFriend co-founder and CEO, declared:

“This investment will allow us to build out our team, focus on community engagement, and marketing efforts.”

As Cointelegraph reported last month, SendFriend was among 13 new financial institutions that recently joined Ripple’s payment network, RippleNet, bringing the total number of customers to over 200.

At the end of last month, Bill Barhydt, CEO of crypto wallet provider and payment startup Abra, stated that consumer cross-border payments and remittance services at scale continue to be a struggle for many crypto firms.