In brief
- The Stellar Development Foundation has invested €550,000 in micropayments provider SatoshiPay.
- This is the third investment made by the SDF in the platform.
- SatoshiPay was one of the first businesses to start using Stellar commercially.
Blockchain micropayments service SatoshiPay has secured a strategic investment of $550,000 from The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF)—the non-profit behind the cryptocurrency Stellar.
According to a press release today, this is the third investment made by the SDF in SatoshiPay, and it’s supposed to primarily help the micropayments provider to develop and market its new B2B commercial solution for cross-border payments.
🚀 We are extremely happy to announce that @StellarOrg has made a strategic investment in SatoshiPay! https://t.co/q4rAr3Fzh2
— SatoshiPay (@SatoshiPay) May 28, 2020
The product is currently being tested, with a closed alpha version scheduled to launch by mid-July and public beta slated for Q4 2020.
Prior to this, the Stellar Foundation and SatoshiPay have had a long history of collaboration, which is unsurprising given that the micropayments provider was one of the first enterprises to use Stellar commercially.
“SDF is a key partner of SatoshiPay providing maintenance and partner support for the Stellar decentralised ledger network. This investment will enhance the already strong relationship that exists between the two organisations and provides a strong endorsement for SatoshiPay,” the release stated.
The investment is provided in the form of convertible loan notes which will be converted during SatoshiPay’s next funding round.
"Our growth over the years wouldn't have been possible without SDF, who has been an essential partner to us in the development of our technology which continues today with this investment," said Meinhard Benn, CEO of SatoshiPay.
As Decrypt reported previously, the Stellar Foundation funded a $1 million SatoshiPay grant program in February 2019. At the time, this became a part of SatoshiPay’s shift toward gaming, streaming and social media tipping.
In January 2019, SatoshiPay also teamed up with Axel Springer, Europe’s largest publishing house. The partnership sees to support online journalism by offering alternative ways to earn tips for news content.
This article has been updated to show that the investment was $550,000, not €550,000, according to a correction issued for the press release.