Ripple, a San Francisco-based company behind the cryptocurrency XRP – has announced an investment initiative Xpring, which will provide funding to startups that agree to use XRP and the XRP Ledger.
«Xpring is a new initiative by Ripple that will invest in, incubate, acquire and provide grants to companies and projects run by proven entrepreneurs. Every entrepreneur will use the digital asset XRP and the XRP Ledger, the open-sourced, decentralized technology behind XRP, to solve their customers’ problems in a transformative way», – wrote Ripple in its announcement on the official website.
The Xpring initiative is an attempt by Ripple to expand its reach and focus beyond the banking and payments space which it has, so far, been focused on.
While Xpring will be geared toward helping «entrepreneurs looking to solve problems across identity, trade finance, gaming and virtual goods, provenance, real estate, insurance, digital media and many other industries», Ripple, in the meantime, will continue to focus on financial institutions and the global payments sphere.
Ripple also announced the appointment of Ethan Beard (former Director of the Facebook Developer Network) as senior VP in charge of leading both Xpring and Ripple’s developer program.
«Blockchain and digital assets have the ability to solve important problems and XRP – with its speed, scalability and demonstrated real-world use case – is a great tool for startups and entrepreneurs to build businesses around», – said Beard.
