Ripple, the global leader in enterprise blockchain solutions for cross-border payments, gains significant customer momentum in South Korea with the addition of Sentbe, Hanpass and WireBarley to RippleNet.
Sentbe is one of the leading remittance companies with a focus on the South- and Northeast Asia corridor including Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan and China. By joining RippleNet, Ripple’s fast-growing global payments network that makes it easy for banks and payment providers to send cross-border payments worldwide, Sentbe users can send and settle remittances and payments in seconds with end-to-end tracking and visibility into fees, delivery time and status.
“Remittance outflows from South Korea have been steadily increasing over the past years to neighboring countries, especially into Southeast Asia. RippleNet, which enables remittance within seconds to customers who previously experienced difficulty with unintegrated networks or distrust with existing remittance processes, will now be given a whole new world of experience. We will also be able to capture more remittance inflows into Korea, thanks to RippleNet’s growing network,” says Seongouk Choi, CEO of Sentbe.
“Asia-Pacific has always been a key region for Ripple as we continue to bring on new financial institutions and partners onto RippleNet. Almost half of our customers are based in APAC and momentum continues to build in this region,” say Eric van Miltenberg, SVP of Global Operations and Business Development at Ripple. “In November, we announced that Ripple has over 300 customers on RippleNet across all markets and has experienced 10x year-over-year growth in transactions.”
RippleNet Customers
Ripple already has a customer roster of Korean financial institutions and money transfer companies on RippleNet. In 2018, Coinone Transfer joined RippleNet to introduce Cross, South Korea’s first blockchain-powered remittance mobile app offering fast, lower cost payments to nearby markets, including Thailand and Philippines. Since then, Coinone Transfer has experienced a 50% month-over-month growth rate in payment volume and was able to reduce fees by 90% compared to what banks are charging customers.
Last year was marked with unprecedented growth for Ripple across all markets. The company opened new offices, including Brazil, Iceland and Dubai, and doubled the number of employees based in Singapore. In 2020, Ripple is focused on growing its customer base and team in APAC with a strong focus on countries such as Japan, Korea and Singapore.
“South Korea is a hotbed of fintech innovation, and we’re committed to grow our customer base and presence,” said Emi Yoshikawa, Sr. Director of Global Operations. “Since the Korean government started licensing payment providers for remittance in 2017, we have witnessed how Korean payment providers dramatically improved payments experience for their customers, and we are pleased to be part of their on-going efforts.”
University Blockchain Research Initiative
Ripple’s efforts in South Korea go beyond delivering blockchain software solutions to financial institutions. In 2018, Korea University joined Ripple’s University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI) to support academic research, technical development and innovation in blockchain, cryptocurrency and digital payments. With support from Ripple, Korea University’s School of Information Security, in collaboration with the Blockchain Security Research Center, is establishing a new research driven program focusing on the role of blockchain based systems, distributed networks, cryptocurrencies and digital payments and examining how they can significantly transform computing and global financial and banking sector.
More broadly, UBRI expanded its global presence to other markets in APAC including Kyoto University, the University of Tokyo, National University of Singapore and Tsinghua University.
UBRI partners with the world’s top universities to support research, curricula development, conferences and events, and scholarship. Other leading institutions included in the program are National University of Singapore, Stanford, University College London (UCL), University of Pennsylvania, University of Waterloo and IIT Bombay, among others.