Ripple’s fundraising arm Xpring is ramping up its investments in a big push to boost the XRP ecosystem. So far this year, the San Francisco startup has backed six companies working to trigger mass adoption of digital assets and blockchain technology.
Xpring just created a $100-million fund with the blockchain gaming company Forte, which will be used to bring digital assets like XRP to thriving mainstream video games with large numbers of daily active users.
This follows an investment in Kava Labs, which is developing an open payment system for cryptocurrencies, and funding for Dharma Protocol, which aims to create a crypto-based decentralized loan platform.
Ripple is also backing Raised in Space Enterprises, a startup that plans to use digital assets like XRP to revitalize the music industry. Xpring has also invested in XRPL Labs, a new company created by the avid XRP developer Wietse Wind.
In addition, Xpring contributed to a new round of fundraising at SendFriend, which will use Ripple’s XRP-based payment solution xRapid to lower the cost of sending money overseas. SendFriend will start the initiative by giving expatriates in the US a new way to send money to the Philippines.
Ripple created Xpring in May of last year, with the mission of providing investments and grants to entrepreneurs who utilize the XRP token and the XRP ledger.
“As a major contributor to the XRP Ledger codebase and large holder of XRP, we often hear from entrepreneurs and developers that they’d like support in one form or another to help them with their XRP-related projects. As one of the few blockchain companies with traction for a non-speculative use case, we feel we’re uniquely positioned to support entrepreneurs in a meaningful way.”
Xpring funded four additional projects in 2018.
- SB Projects, which is working to use XRP to improve artists’ ability to monetize and manage their content
- Coil, which allows web surfers to reward internet content creators by donating XRP
- Omni, an on-demand storage marketplace integrating XRP as a currency
- Blockchain Capital, a crypto and blockchain venture capital firm that’s also exploring new use cases for XRP
