Today Ripple announced that it has acquired a minority stake in a company that deals with cross-border payments.
The company is called Tranglo and operates in the Asian market. The agreement with Ripple provides for the American company to acquire 40% of Tranglo.
Tranglo is described as “Asia’s leading cross-border payments specialist”, with a focus on the Philippines route.
The cross-border payment landscape in Southeast Asia in particular is highly fragmented, lacking a standard for integrating different systems. This requires the use of expensive solutions, and the new partnership aims to introduce simpler and cheaper ones.
In fact, Ripple will expand the reach of RippleNet‘s on-demand liquidity (ODL) service in the region, which uses the digital asset XRP for immediate and inexpensive transactions. This will also introduce new ODL corridors within the current network, while Tranglo will continue to provide its current payment services but making cross-border transactions faster, cheaper and more secure.
Ripple, cross-border payments
Southeast Asia already appears to be the fastest-growing region for RippleNet adoption, so much so that Ripple has appointed a new CEO specifically to lead and expand its operations in this area: Brooks Entwistle.
Once the transaction is complete, after approval from local authorities, Brooks Entwistle himself will join Tranglo’s board of directors, along with Ripple’s vice president of Product and Delivery, Amir Sarhangi. Tranglo’s majority shareholder will remain TNG Fintech Group.
The CEO of Tranglo, Jacky Lee, stated:
“Tranglo has always prided itself on making cross-border transactions faster, cheaper and safer. By working closely with Ripple and introducing ODL to new markets, we aim to further the ambition of providing accessible and fair financial services to the masses”.
RippleNet General Manager, Asheesh Birla, added:
“Tranglo’s robust payments infrastructure coupled with their unparalleled customer service and quality makes them an ideal partner to support our expansion of On-Demand Liquidity starting with the Southeast Asia region. We are excited to continue and carry out our shared mission to transform cross-border transactions to be faster, cheaper and more secure with blockchain technology and digital assets”.
The price of XRP seems to have been unaffected by this news, but it has to be said that it had already risen 30% in the last few days. Although it is still a long way from the all-time highs of January 2018, it is well up compared to the values of the last two years.
