Blockchain/AI/IoT | May 5, 2017

Medici Ventures invests in Ripio to bring bitcoin to the unbanked in Latin America

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Overstock.com’s venture fund Medici Ventures has invested $428,000 in Ripio, a bitcoin exchange startup based in Argentina.

Ripio’s platform offers remittance and other financial services to 70,000 users in Argentina and Brazil and is expanding to Mexico and Colombia.

A host of startups are working on blockchain-based remittance and financial services. “It feels like blockchain is very well positioned for the unbanked, which the current technology and systems are not,” said Medici’s Jonathan Johnson.

Medici was launched in 2014 to invest in emerging blockchain technologies, both financial and non-financial.

In November, it invested in Belgium-based SettleMint, which uses the technology for election vote recording and transparency.

Medici’s latest commitment closes Ripio’s $2.25 million Series A round, which was led by Chinese venture capital fund Huiyin Blockchain Venture.