Ripple partner and global remittance player TerraPay has just been acquired for an undisclosed amount of money. The company also raised $9.6 million from Prime Ventures, IFC, and Partech Africa, for global expansion, as part of the acquisition deal.
Will TerraPay bring XRP to millions of new global users?
TerraPay is a local, regional and global payments fintech startup that was incubated by Comviva, a mobile solutions provider based in India. TerraPay is a new payments infrastructure provider which links financial institutions, banks, mobile money operators, money transfer operators, into the same payments network to reduce costs.
TerraPay has secured more than 25 licenses to operate in over 60 countries, and currently exists in Africa, Europe, and Asia, with plans to expand globally with the $9.6 million they raised.
TerraPay will also be able to offer banking-like services to industries typically excluded from traditional payment processors and credit card systems. They’ll also make it possible for mobile money accounts to be used by businesses to pay employee salaries and allow for remittance payments to settle in real time.
TerraPay has actively pursued partnerships with global payments networks and remittance services like Visa, Xpress Money, MoneyTrans, Paga, Ria, Instant Cash, Ripple and MoneyGram.
Ripple and TerraPay are partners, but no mention of XRP for TerraPay
Unlike many other Ripple partnerships, which leverage Ripplenet technology for cross-border payments, TerraPay has its own payments network and settlement system.
TerraPay also has partnerships with many of Ripple’s direct competitors in the global payments market, like Western Union.
TerraPay may utilize XRP or some other Ripple payments tech in the future, however as it stands presently no plans for such a joint-venture have yet been announced.
Ambar Sur, CEO of TerraPay spoke on Terrapay’s mission.
We believe in our mission to address financial inclusion by making real time national, regional and global payments accessible to everyone. We are excited by this validation from our marquee investors, and look forward to growing rapidly and reaching most of the world’s underserved in the coming years.
While TerraPay and Ripple share similar goals of making remittances cheaper and more accessible, it remains to be seen just how much overlap in these shared goals will be leveraged by the TerraPay/Ripple partnership.
Is the TerraPay acquisition a net positive for Ripple or not? Let us know in the comments!
Images via Shutterstock
