Ripple Completes $50M MoneyGram Investment, Gets 10 Pct Stake

Payments company Ripple has invested $50 million in MoneyGram, according to reports.

The deal was finalized and also announced by both companies Monday (Nov. 25), and according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ripple made its final payment on the deal with $20 million in equity at $4.10 a share.

Ripple now owns almost 10 percent of MoneyGram’s common stock “and approximately 15 percent on a fully-diluted basis including non-voting warrants held by Ripple,” according to the SEC filing.

“Our partnership with Ripple is transformative for both the traditional money transfer and digital asset industry — for the first time ever, we’re settling currencies in seconds,” said Alex Holmes, MoneyGram chairman and CEO, in a press release. “This initial success encourages us to expedite expanding our use of On-Demand Liquidity. Partnerships with companies like Ripple support innovation and allow us to invest in creating better customer experiences. I anticipate furthering our growth into new corridors and exploring new products and services.”

MoneyGram said it’s going to use the capital to develop and expand the On-Demand Liquidity payment system, which uses XRP cryptocurrency. MoneyGram has been using XRP for transactions in several countries around the world.

“Last month, we announced that MoneyGram began using On-Demand Liquidity for payments to the Philippines, and we’re excited to support MoneyGram’s further expansion into Europe and Australia,” said Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple’s CEO. “Digital assets and blockchain technology have the potential to make a tremendous impact on cross-border payments — MoneyGram and Ripple is an example of that. In June, we announced this partnership, and it’s encouraging to see the rapid growth and benefits come to life.”

Ripple made the initial payment of $30 million earlier in the year, and it also signed a commercial agreement with the payments company for “cross-border settlement using digital assets.” Ripple provides enterprise blockchain solutions for global payments.