SendFriend attracted Ripple, Barclays, and some other investors with its US-Philippines remittance service

Blockchain-based remittance startup that helps people in US to send money to the Philippines SendFriend has announced funding from Ripple, Barclays, MIT Media Lab, the Mastercard Foundation, Techstars, Mahindra Finance, 2020 Ventures, and 8 Decimal Capital. All investors banded together in raising a total capital of US$1.7 million for the company, as reported by The News Asia.

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The company will use the fund to finance its mission, which is to enable Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) to securely transfer USD to PHP at the lowest rate available. SendFriend also seeks to become the only option to do so, from US to the Philippines and vice versa with 65 per cent lower fees.

The news came just after the integration with Ripple’s xRapid solution for SendFriend’s users to have a more efficient cross-border payment in November 2018.

“With the integration, XRP is used as a liquidity vehicle for cross-border payments, enabling SendFriend’s users to circumvent the corresponding banking system and convert USD to XRP to PHP in a matter of seconds,” said representative from SendFriend to David Lighton, SendFriend co-founder and Chief Executive Officer further added the plan with the funding.

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“This investment will allow us to build out our team, focus on community engagement, and marketing efforts. Next, we’re planning to launch in New Jersey and becoming available in other states in US,” said Lighton.
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Image Credit: SendFriend

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