SDF invests $15M in Theairtm, which is a digital wallet and peer-to-peer exchange platform for Latin America. 

The airtm, is the digital wallet and peer-to-peer exchange platform for Latin America. Airtm is integrating with Stellar to make transactions more efficient and cost-effective for users.

Thus, XLM is bringing about a digital transformation in Latin America, thus supporting the expansion of Airtm’s blockchain-based payments platform for multi-currency transactions.

This investment is SDF’s largest Enterprise Fund investment to date. This is the fund’s fifth strategic investment made in the 2021 fiscal year.

This investment will make it possible for Airtm to advance the development of their robust platform by integrating their platform with Stellar in the coming year.  Thus, providing access to global financial services to businesses and consumers in Latin America.  Therefore creating the most needed bridge to improve on the financial relationships for the developing world with the rest of the world. 

Thus, this integration will help leveraging the most powerful features of the Stellar Network to make transactions more efficient, secure, and cost-effective.

Ruben Galindo Steckel, CEO of Airtm, expressed, “Airtm exists because financial systems throughout the developing world are not aligned with their people’s needs and global aspirations.” Further stated, “With this investment, and our integration with the Stellar network, we will continue to advance on our mission of helping consumers and businesses throughout the developing world access stable money that holds its value, is instant to transfer with no fees, compatible with the global economy, and can be withdrawn as local currency whenever, and wherever it’s needed.”

Latin America to date continues to be a cash-based economy, because of the fragmented banking system. Reportedly, in 2020 alone, 91% of all transactions in Mexico were made in cash. However, the broader Latin American region accounted for 5% of all global cross-border transactions.

It is interesting to see that Latin America is digitizing fast.  There are 13 million Visa cardholders in the region who made their first-ever online transaction in 2020, and the COVID-19 pandemic has acted as a catalyst for digital transformation. 

For clarity, according to the Stellar Blog, SDF’s Enterprise Fund is a venture-style fund for growing the Stellar open-source network globally. So far, in 2021, the fund has invested a total of $24.5 million in global fintech or blockchain companies, for a combined total of $33.76 million in investments since its launch in FY20.