Stellar Invests $15 Million in P2P Exchange Airtm

Announced in a press release on 25 May, the $15 million investment is the most amount of money the Stellar Development Fund has ever put into a project. So far in 2021, the fund has invested a total of $24.5 million in global fintech and blockchain companies, for a combined total of $33.76 million in investments since its launch last year.

The Mexico City-based Airtm is a blockchain bank-connected wallet and a peer-to-peer (P2P) exchange platform targeting the Latin American market. The investment will enable the company to expand and integrate Stellar into its platform. Denelle Dixon, the CEO and Executive Director of the Stellar Development Foundation, said that integrating with Stellar will enable Airtm to solve the last-mile remittance problem and bring more people into the global financial system.

According to LendIt, 91% of all transactions in Mexico in 2020 were made in cash, while the broader Latin American region accounted for just 5% of all global cross-border transactions. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the region’s digital transformation, pushing 13 million Visa cardholders to make their first-ever online transaction in 2020. 

“With this investment, and our integration with the Stellar network, we will continue to advance on our mission of helping consumers and businesses throughout the developing world access stable money that holds its value, is instant to transfer with no fees, compatible with the global economy, and can be withdrawn as local currency whenever, and wherever it’s needed,” said Ruben Galindo Steckel, the CEO of Airtm.