Ripple’s fundraising arm Xpring has invested in XRPL Labs — a startup that develops applications for the XRP ledger, the company announced in a blog post on Feb. 13.
Xpring’s director Vanessa Pestritto has announced that Wietse Wind — a long-time XRP community developer and one of the three XRPL Labs co-founders — is a “proven entrepreneur” who “has successfully grown his companies organically.” According to Pestritto, the company’s decision to invest in the startup was motivated by Wind’s creative approach and ability to engage developers.
Pestritto believes that the funding will help Wietse and his partners dedicate more time building XRP Ledger-based projects, which include Wind’s recent tool for streaming payments for electrical power.
The exact amount of the investment has not yet been disclosed to press time.
Wietse recently paid a tribute to Xpring on his Twitter, promising to develop more “killer XRPL apps” soon.
Ripple recently announced version 1.2.0 of XRP Ledger, which focuses on improving the protocol’s censorship resistance.
Earlier this week, Ripple, Mastercard Foundation, MIT Media Lab and Barclays invested in remittance company SendFriend, which uses Ripple’s xRapid product for cross-border payments. The company successfully raised $1.7 million in its first funding round.
In the other important news for investments, this month New York-based blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis raised $30 million in a Series B funding round led by venture capital giant Accel.
Also this month, San Francisco-based blockchain lending firm Dharma Labs raised $7 million from several prominent investors, including Green Visor Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, Passport Capital and Y Combinator.
