WAKEFIELD, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The Mojaloop Foundation today announced that India’s leading digital payments platform PhonePe and enterprise blockchain solution provider Ripple have joined as Sponsor members, the highest level of the organization. In their role as Sponsor members, they will join the Mojaloop Foundation Board of Directors and help provide the strategic vision, governance, and technical guidance to ensure the long-term health and growth of the Mojaloop open source software and development community.
The Mojaloop Foundation also welcomed new Promoter members to support the advancement of Mojaloop, including: Giori Digital SA, a Swiss company providing central banks with a unique digital banknote form of retail Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) to drive greater access to safe currency for the underserved; and Sybrin, a leading global provider of payment solutions, financial services solutions, and a low-code development platform for digital transformation.
To achieve universal financial inclusion, digital financial services need to be affordable and accessible to all. Despite mobile money services emerging in nearly 100 countries, 1.7 billion people still lack access to digital financial services, according to the World Bank’s Global Findex. Many payment providers struggle with the high cost of creating no-fee or low-fee, cross border payment systems that interoperate with others. The Mojaloop Foundation’s newest members will support the advancement of Mojaloop as a public good, enabling different types of digital financial service providers – large and small – to use the open source blueprint to help lower the cost and technical hurdles involved in creating interoperable payment models that serve all.
“Mojaloop Foundation’s financial inclusion mission has resonated loudly with many organizations. We are very pleased to welcome our newest members, including PhonePe and Ripple as Sponsor members, and Giori Digital and Sybrin as Promoter members,” said Paula Hunter, executive director of the Mojaloop Foundation. “We continue to advance and support Mojaloop open source software, collaborate with our community and hold convenings to serve as a path forward for organizations creating interoperable payments platforms to connect all digital financial providers and customers within an economy. We welcome any organization that has an interest in advancing digital financial inclusion to join the organization.”
With the support of Mojaloop Foundation Sponsor and Promoter members, Mojaloop open source software will serve as a model for how to simplify and reduce the cost of payment interoperability. If more payment models were interoperable, more banks and other digital payment providers could develop digital financial services that meet the needs of emerging markets and the unbanked. According to McKinsey Global Institute, if widely adopted, interoperable digital financial services could provide more of the population with access to important financial tools, while adding $3.7 trillion to emerging countries’ GDP by 2025.
“Our vision of universal financial inclusion is a world where everyone, everywhere, can access and use the digital financial services they need to build economic security and resilience,” said Kosta Peric, chair of the Mojaloop Foundation and deputy director of the Financial Services for the Poor program at the Gates Foundation. “The work of the Mojaloop open source project will thrive with the talent, innovation and leadership from this dynamic and growing group of member organizations, in service of our shared mission to benefit underserved and low-income communities.”
PhonePe, which means “on the phone” in Hindi, is a leading digital payments firm in India. PhonePe CEO Sameer Nigam will serve on the Mojaloop Foundation’s Board of Directors.
“If we want to make the world a more financially inclusive place, we need to work together, as institutions, governments and technology companies, to make payment systems interoperable,” said Sameer Nigam, CEO of PhonePe. “We are looking forward to collaborating with our fellow members to advance Mojaloop’s mission of financial inclusion. Together, we can help organizations understand how to build interoperable digital payment systems, provide low-cost access and feel confident in creating systems that work across borders.”
Ripple’s corporate social impact program, Ripple for Good, is designed to support mission-driven organizations to dramatically expand the number of people who fully and equitably participate in the global financial system. Ripple’s Head of Social Impact Ken Weber will serve on the Mojaloop Foundation’s Board of Directors.
“Creating economic fairness and opportunity for the unbanked and vulnerable populations is Ripple’s highest social impact priority—a natural extension of Ripple’s core business, which is making cross-border payments faster, cheaper and more reliable and accessible for hundreds of millions of consumers and businesses globally,” said Ken Weber, head of Social Impact, Ripple. “Ripple has been involved with the Mojaloop project since the start, providing technical advice and engineering support and are proud to continue to collaborate with fellow Mojaloop Sponsor members in working toward a more inclusive future where everyone, everywhere can access digital financial services needed to connect to the global economy.”
About PhonePe
PhonePe is India’s leading digital payments platform with over 230 million registered users. Using PhonePe, users can send and receive money, recharge mobile, DTH, data cards, pay at stores, make utility payments, buy gold and make investments. PhonePe forayed into financial services in 2017 with the launch of digital gold providing users with a safe and convenient option to buy 24-karat gold securely on its platform. PhonePe has since launched Mutual funds and Insurance financial products like tax-saving funds, liquid funds, international travel insurance and Corona Care, a dedicated insurance product for the COVID-19 pandemic. PhonePe also launched its Switch platform in 2018, and today its customers can place orders on over 200 apps including Ola, Myntra, IRCTC, Goibibo, RedBus, Oyo etc. directly from within the PhonePe mobile app. PhonePe is accepted at over 11 million merchant outlets across 500 cities nationally.
About Ripple
Ripple enables payments everywhere, every way, for everyone using the power of blockchain. By joining Ripple’s growing, global network (RippleNet), financial institutions can process their customers’ payments anywhere in the world instantly, reliably and cost-effectively. Banks and payment providers can use the digital asset XRP to further reduce their costs and access new markets. With offices in San Francisco, Washington D.C., New York, London, Mumbai, Singapore, São Paulo, Reykjavik and Dubai, Ripple has more than 300 customers around the world.
About the Mojaloop Foundation
Launched in May, The Mojaloop Foundation’s mission is to increase financial inclusion by empowering organizations creating interoperable payment systems to enable digital financial services for all. Board-level members include Coil, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Google, ModusBox, Omidyar Network, PhonePe, Ripple and The Rockefeller Foundation. To achieve its mission, Mojaloop Foundation operates as a 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit, maintaining its free, open source software, Mojaloop, and community as public goods in service of financial inclusion. Merchants, banks, providers, government offices and other entities looking to build inclusive payments platforms can use Mojaloop—whole, adapted, or as a real-time payments reference model. For more information about the Mojaloop Foundation, visit https://mojaloop.io/.