Almond Finance, a blockchain-based start-up enabling cross-border remittances using mobile wallets, on Monday announced it had raised $ 2 million in a funding round led by Morningside Group.
The company uses blockchain technology, a network of cryptographically secure distributed ledgers, to connect financial institutions and users around the world. Almond’s platform enables international money transfers between institutions, regardless of currency.
Using Almond’s platform, financial institutions and businesses can enable real-time cross-border money transfers for users, even those without a bank account.
“This milestone brings us closer to realizing our long-standing vision of making financial services more accessible and inclusive globally,” said Adam Swartzbaugh, Managing Director of Almond Finance. “The interoperability offered by our technology can change the way money flows, creating a leap towards financial inclusion. “
Based in Boston and Singapore, Swartzbaugh said Almond intends to use the money to hire more people, drive product development and meet compliance requirements for new markets.
Almond aims to serve 3 million customers in the United States, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore. The company is currently planning to open its first money transfer network corridor in the first quarter of 2022, initially focusing on Southeast Asia and North America.
Almond said he is in talks with potential partners in Thailand and Malaysia and finalizing deals with financial institutions in Cambodia. At the same time, the company is looking for traditional banks, neobanks and credit unions in the United States to connect the two sides of the network.
Providing cross-border payments using blockchain technology has been a long-term goal using the technology. IBM Corp. first piloted such a network in 2017 using the Stellar blockchain, followed quickly by JPMorgan Chase & Co. using the Ethereum blockchain. As of October, even money transfer company MoneyGram has also been using the Stellar blockchain for cross-border money transfers.
Usually, a cross-border transfer is a slow and cumbersome process that involves a lot of paperwork and high fees and goes through many hands for the transfer to happen. However, with the use of blockchain technology, all of this can happen almost instantly between the parties. The blockchain also records every transaction in a secure and private manner so as to facilitate compliance with local laws against money laundering and finance.
