Ripple partner Xago says it’s receiving a substantial investment to expand its cryptocurrency services across African markets.
Xago operates a regulatory compliant XRP/South African rand (ZAR) exchange that bypasses traditional payment rails and allows customers to move money quickly across borders.
The company announced this week that it’s receiving an investment from Imvelo Ventures, a venture capital company founded by the South Africa-based Capitec Bank and investment firm Empowerment Capital Investment Partners.
Xago CEO Mark Chirnside says the funding will help fuel the company’s mission to lower the cost and boost the speed of remittances.
Chirnside tells Moneyweb Crypto that his company is also working on closing deals with other exchanges around the world.
“We have 25 global exchanges on the discussion point about accepting the integration with us to open up South Africa. We are working with the authorities on regulation around the space and we are working with… a couple of retail spaces to join the functionality down to the point of sale.”
Jurgen Kuhnel, chief commercial officer and co-founder of the exchange, says XRP is critical to the company’s mission of making crypto function in the day-to-day payments space.
“The payment speed is essential. If you had to take, for example, Bitcoin – it takes 12 minutes to clear on average for a block confirmation, or the Ethereum Network takes three minutes, and the XRP Ledger takes three seconds.”
Featured Image: Shutterstock/Gonin