Ripple raises $200 million to improve global payments

Ripple has raised a $200 million Series C funding round. Tetragon is leading the round, with SBI Holdings and Route 66 Ventures also participating. According to Fortune, the company is now valued at $10 billion.

“We are in a strong financial position to execute against our vision. As others in the blockchain space have slowed their growth or even shut down, we have accelerated our momentum and industry leadership throughout 2019,” Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in the announcement.

The startup has been focused on improving cross-border payments and other money-transmitting activities using XRP, a cryptocurrency that has its own blockchain, the XRP Ledger. The total market capitalization of XRP tokens is currently the third-largest cryptocurrency market capitalization behind bitcoin and Ethereum.

It is currently worth $8.4 billion according to CoinMarketCap. While XRP is a decentralized cryptocurrency, Ripple controls a significant chunk of the total market cap. That reserve is valuable by itself. During the third quarter of 2019, Ripple sold $66.24 million in XRP tokens.

Ripple believes that cryptocurrencies (and XRP in particular) could be a great way to facilitate cross-border transactions. It has the potential to be both cheaper and faster than traditional foreign exchange solutions.

The company has been trying to convince financial institutions to switch to RippleNet as the back-end currency for international payments.

RippleNet now has 300 customers. In particular, Ripple took a 10% stake in MoneyGram to help them switch to RippleNet, at least in part.