SendFriend gets investments from Ripple, Mastercard, Barclays

[Unblock_news]

SendFriend said that its 1.7 million US dollars of raised capital is going to be used to enable overseas Filipino workers to remit USD to PHP securely and cheaply.

The firm said that it would be launching as the only option for overseas Filipino workers to securely and reliably remit money with 65 percent lower remittance cost than the industry average.

Read more here: https://www.unblock.news/news/sendfriend-gets-investments-from-ripple-mastercard-barclays

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[avikz]

An overseas Filipino worker using the service would have their US dollars converted to XRP, then to Philippine peso in seconds as it circumvents the banking system.

Crypto transfers are always cheaper than conventional banking system, so not only Filipinos, but any person can use crypto to keep their transfer cost to the minimum. Is SendFriend only targeting Filipino market? Or they have plans for expansion to other markets as well? Because targeting only one country, won't make much impact or won't drive any huge volume! To sustain as a company, they will have to eventually expand their operations to the countries as well. And what I see from the company profile, they are targeting the immigrants and not exclusive to Filipinos only!

But one thing needs special mention. The profile of CEO David Lighton is really impressive. The experience of working with World Bank, MIT, IFC and MasterCard is indeed only blessed people can get!

https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-lighton-b027a917/

[bustedsynx]

Global remittance is the true Holy Grail of blockchains (global supply chains is second). There are several attempts to reach it now. Sendfriend, Drinkey, ContractLand, Facebook, ETHA Solutions, etc. - You name it. So many options, so much developments in the Blockchain remittance space. We will soon know which one will succeed.

[Kakmakr]

Ripple Nipple are hanging on by the tip of their finger nails to survive and they are more than willing to offer up any feature of their coin to please the Banking industry.

Ripple can not even be defined as a Crypto currency anymore, because it is a full Bankcoin now. <They raped anonymity and they are fully centralized.> 

If Bitcoin did the same, it would lose more than 90% of it's support from the current community. 

[Kemarit]

I agree that remittance business in the Philippines is a billion dollar industry, just imagine millions of Philippines working abroad and sending money to their love ones in the country specially in December. I'm not sure if coins.ph has been utilized already by OFW's but for now it's the safest and fastest specially it involves crypto.

@avikz - maybe they using the Philippine remittance market because as I have it's a billion dollar business. I'm sure that there are lot of Asian nations they can target next. Another reason maybe is that the Philippine government is very friendly to crypto, so it makes sense for them to target Filipino market.

[davis196]

SendFriend said that its 1.7 million US dollars of raised capital is going to be used to enable overseas Filipino workers to remit USD to PHP securely and cheaply.

The firm said that it would be launching as the only option for overseas Filipino workers to securely and reliably remit money with 65 percent lower remittance cost than the industry average.

Read more here: https://www.unblock.news/news/sendfriend-gets-investments-from-ripple-mastercard-barclays

1.7 million USD in raised capital is not enough.
How many filipino workers are currently working in the USA?There's no need to create a separate company in order to conquer that niche.Crypto adoption will do the work.Pilipinos don't need fiat money-based projects.

[Kemarit]

SendFriend said that its 1.7 million US dollars of raised capital is going to be used to enable overseas Filipino workers to remit USD to PHP securely and cheaply.

The firm said that it would be launching as the only option for overseas Filipino workers to securely and reliably remit money with 65 percent lower remittance cost than the industry average.

Read more here: https://www.unblock.news/news/sendfriend-gets-investments-from-ripple-mastercard-barclays

1.7 million USD in raised capital is not enough.
How many filipino workers are currently working in the USA?There's no need to create a separate company in order to conquer that niche.Crypto adoption will do the work.Pilipinos don't need fiat money-based projects.

I don't know what's the data, but I did found this one:

http://cnnphilippines.com/business/2018/04/24/world-bank-PH-3rd-remittances.html

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, April 24) — The Philippines is the world's third highest recipient of remittances, according to a report from the World Bank.

On Monday, the World Bank said remittances to low- and middle-income countries reached US$466 billion in 2017, an increase of 8.5 percent since the previous year. The top remittance recipient is India with $69 billion, followed by China at $64 billion, and the Philippines at $33 billion (₱1.731 trillion).

Mexico followed with $31 billion in received remittances, and then Nigeria at $21 billion

And as I have said before, maybe because of the crypto friendly nature of the government of the Philippines that why they're sort of experimenting, my only negative thought is that they wanted Ripple to be the face of this project.  and I don't know if Filipinos will appreciate it.

[dothebeats]

-snip-

And as I have said before, maybe because of the crypto friendly nature of the government of the Philippines that why they're sort of experimenting, my only negative thought is that they wanted Ripple to be the face of this project.  and I don't know if Filipinos will appreciate it.

Most Filipino cryptocurrency hubs are into different coins, so they *might* see something good in Ripple especially if it's doing something great for the overall scene. Knowing that the Philippines is a country in which overseas remittance constitutes to an average of 7.03% of the country's GDP, this could be a game changer for the overseas workers' ranks. Cryptocurrencies would be a good choice for remittances but knowing the hassles of KYC for exchanges, third-party services would be the best bet to ensure that minimal hassles would be encountered and minimal fees would be applied. This would be very welcomed should this service fully materialize.

[peter0425]

I like the idea simply because the transaction is much cheaper if they're going for Ripple. But as far as I know, coins.ph supports Ripple already isn't it? So someone wanted to dig their hands on the cookie jar and take some piece of the action because of the booming remittance business in the Philippines.

[guoyu78]

Getting only 1.7 million dollars in funding isn't really such a big news.

I mean when you are backed by companies like ripple, master-card and Barclays you should be looking to raise at least 10+ million dollars no matter at what stage you are, even in idea stage because if those companies are interested in what you are doing than they are definitely going to invest more money as well, maybe the % of what they will own could change but those type of companies do not shy away from spending 10+ million dollars on anything.

1.7 million dollars is probably like a big party they will throw after a huge deal so for funding its definitely immensely low amount. They wouldn't be investing into sendfriend if they didn't believe in the project and if they believe in the project (they obviously do) they wouldn't mind a 15 million funding neither.

[omonuyak]

That is good as many philipino will have reduction I the cost of transactions.  It is very cheap using blockchain for transferring of value and since this is one aspect of blockchain technology I think it will promote cryptocurrencies in future.

[gulubal]

SendFriend's news is interesting. A serious figure of 1.7 million US dollars. both in terms of low cost and more reliable, in my opinion, all the world blockchain based deposits will be made in the coming years.  The future is shaped before our eyes.

[bustedsynx]

We just have to wait and see how much savings and how much convenience the Sendfriend remittance will bring compared to traditional remittances like Western Union and alike. Other remittance services based on blockchains like ETHA Solutions will have to up their game now.

[MakeMoneyBtc]

Getting only 1.7 million dollars in funding isn't really such a big news.

At first it doesn't sound like much but when you think it's just a small bank that is still in the development that's something else. Even though you  have partnered with Ripple or Mastercard this doesn't mean they are going to just give you millions of dollars to launch your new project since they have partnerships with thousands of companies like this. For them it should just be an honor to be able to collaborate with such firms.

[n0ne]

Getting only 1.7 million dollars in funding isn't really such a big news.

At first it doesn't sound like much but when you think it's just a small bank that is still in the development that's something else. Even though you  have partnered with Ripple or Mastercard this doesn't mean they are going to just give you millions of dollars to launch your new project since they have partnerships with thousands of companies like this. For them it should just be an honor to be able to collaborate with such firms.

It is at its beginning stage, and by now raising 1.7 million is good. The investments flow from ripple, mastercard and all will help it get a good reputation for its services. When top financial giants invest on small firms automatically it gains added value and the same will help in its faster growth. Can expect good growth in the future. Another thing ripple always intend to invest on financial services that are centralized and has got good number of users.

[binhvo1505]

SendFriend said that its 1.7 million US dollars of raised capital is going to be used to enable overseas Filipino workers to remit USD to PHP securely and cheaply.

The firm said that it would be launching as the only option for overseas Filipino workers to securely and reliably remit money with 65 percent lower remittance cost than the industry average.

Read more here: https://www.unblock.news/news/sendfriend-gets-investments-from-ripple-mastercard-barclays

This will be a successful business in the future. I think they should develop more widely in other countries. such as Japan, China, India or Vietnam.
that is, countries with high demand for money transfer because people tend to migrate quite high. This will be a great opportunity for SendFriend.

[Kevin77]

I seriously doubt that. I mean look at startups all over silicon valley, the ones that fail and the ones that doesn't show this kind of promise and there are many ones that just funded because founders did something good once upon a time. Not everything is a paypal mafia that went on to do great things, some startups just fail by default because the idea is that bad.

So, considering those horrible startups at silicon valley could get much much more than 1.7 million dollars in funding just because they were capable of networking with right people I don't think sendfriend should be really happy getting small amount compared to these horrible startups. They actually have a great system intact and they could sell their company for over a billion dollars one day (if they do everything properly) so selling out a part of your company for this cheap is not a smart move.

[scambust]

We will soon see if this is cost-effective. However many other remittance-focused ventures such as etharemit.org have started eliminating barriers to conversion.