The programme, announced on April 2, brings open payments education into classrooms in North America, Europe, Australia and Africa.

It focuses on teaching students how to design systems that can work across different platforms, currencies and borders without the usual friction.

Today, payments are still split across multiple channels. Businesses usually rely on cash, cards, transfers and newer digital options, each with its own setup.

These systems rarely connect well. As a result, transactions that could be instant still take days, and costs is high.

The foundation is trying to change that through its Interledger Protocol, an open-source system designed to allow money to move freely between networks.

The idea is that different systems should talk to each other without limitations. If adopted widely, it could support digital payment infrastructure similar to national systems like India’s UPI or Brazil’s Pix, but with the added ability to work across borders.

Now, that thinking is being pushed into universities.

In Nigeria, Covenant University is introducing two courses focused on open payments and the Interledger system. Students will build real fintech tools through labs, hackathons and community projects aimed at improving financial access.

Across other regions, the approach varies but the goal stays the same. Some schools are embedding the coursework into business programmes.

Others are running internships, startup labs or research hubs. In South Africa, students are already building full payment applications as part of their final projects. In Kenya, the focus is on helping underbanked communities through student-led solutions.

In the United States, several historically Black colleges and universities are also involved. Students there are working on prototypes that address gaps in financial access while gaining practical experience.

The foundation says this is about building a pipeline of people who understand the limits of current systems and can improve them.

“The next generation of leaders has the opportunity to build payment systems that improve the closed, siloed systems of the past,” said Briana Marbury, president and CEO of the Interledger Foundation.

“Working with these universities, we have the opportunity to instil in students the knowledge and tools they need to design for interoperability from day one, so open payments become the standard, rather than the exception.”

This education drive sits within the organisation’s goal to expand open financial systems globally. It has already committed more than $21 million to over 200 projects in 42 countries, supporting developers, startups and researchers working on payment solutions.

More partnerships are expected as the foundation plans to open applications to additional schools later this year, as it looks to grow the programme and bring more students into the space.

Creators and publishers face impossible economics: declining ad revenue, subscription fatigue, and a choice between paywalls, platform dependence, or giving content away free.

As audiences move to decentralized platforms the problem intensifies, as these platforms often lack monetization infrastructure.

Interledger’s Grant for the Web program funds research into practical solutions, including Web Monetization, a streaming payment system that lets audiences pay creators directly as they consume content.

“Successful online communities and strong digital economies both rely on open, connected efforts,” said Briana Marbury, CEO at Interledger Foundation. “Social Web Foundation’s work is essential, looking at how decentralized interoperable systems can create safer and more sustainable online spaces.”

The Social Web Foundation will continue its research on sustainable revenue and operating models for digital publishers and community-run platforms.

The Social Web Foundation will focus on four key areas:

• How individual creators  build and maintain audience relationships without relying on centralized social media platforms
• How Web Monetization can support podcasts, video and other multimedia content. Sustainable revenue and governance models for community-run servers legal and operational challenges of collectively-owned and operated community infrastructure.

“Challenges for the Social Web in 2026 are more social and economic than technical. The network has grown by leaps and bounds, it’s true, but participants need more funding mechanisms and organizational tools to sustain it,” said Evan Prodromou, research director at the Social Web Foundation. “Thanks to this grant from the Interledger Foundation, we can work with the community to put existing services on a solid footing, identify and clear barriers to growth for the Social Web, and make the network a positive factor of even more people’s lives.”

The Interledger Foundation’s Grant for the Web program has awarded $400,000 in 2025 to content publishers and platforms exploring new monetization models.

With the goal of building equity and inclusion, Interledger created the grant program to assist individuals/leaders around the world that are passionate about helping those who have been systematically excluded from financial access.

The intention for this year’s cohort was to strengthen the Foundation’s commitment to improving interoperability and access to digital financial services for the 1.7 billion unbanked globally.

The criteria for selecting the cohort includes finding experienced applicants with specific expertise who are hoping to explore new innovative pathways to create and implement open-source technologies that align with the Foundation’s vision for a world where everyone can send a payment as easily as an email.

Based on that, the Ambassadors will commit eight months to their project and receive $30,000 in grant money to research, develop, cultivate and support their communities to create opportunities for economic activation and growth.

“We selected five outstanding candidates whose innovative and insightful projects are poised to create meaningful impact,” said Chris Lawrence, chief programs officer at the Interledger Foundation. “By researching the challenges around digital financial inclusion, their work can catalyze greater financial health in our global society. This group truly exemplifies the forward thinking and mission-based rigor that we need to push the possibilities beyond the financial systems we know today.”

Congratulations to the new Cohort:

Sheena Allen -Los Angeles, CA –  “Financial Exclusion in the Southern U.S.: The Real Whys, Challenges, and the [Potential] Role of Digital Inclusion,” –  this study investigates the financial exclusion faced by unbanked, and underbanked in the Southern U.S.

“The funding from the Interledger Foundation allows me to take a grassroots, on-the-ground approach to my research, which is something larger firms often overlook. Traveling to different cities and connecting directly with financially underserved communities is essential to uncovering insights not captured in traditional data. As someone who grew up in this environment, I bring a lived perspective to the work, and this funding helps me turn that perspective into meaningful research that can drive more effective, inclusive solutions.”

Gavin Chait – France – Hop Sauna, is an open-source template stack ready for custom development of community-moderated Open Payments-enabled web shops, including a base server and client, with documentation, to support rapidly creating new types of federated commercial social applications.

“I am fascinated by the frontiers of human progress: innovation vs ignorance; wealth vs poverty, migration vs stasis. The future of financial inclusion lies in understanding people, not just building products. While digital access has expanded opportunities, many of the financially excluded face deeper, systemic barriers that tech alone can’t solve. My work focuses on uncovering the root causes of exclusion, particularly in the South, so we can design financial tools that are both accessible and culturally relevant. I believe that by grounding innovation in real, lived experiences, we can create a more inclusive financial future that works for everyone.”

Xiaoji Song – Berlin – “Shifting Power in the Informal Economy” – highlights the Informal economic activity in a continent that has over 90% digital connectivity. She researches how the informal economy is essential to the livelihoods of marginalized communities, yet its informality—often not by choice—results in exclusion, stigma, and limited choices when seeking labor rights protection and economic empowerment.

“This project aims to understand how the digital financial inclusion efforts from the Interledger ecosystem can support crafting pathways for labor rights protections and economic empowerment of the communities involved in the informal economy, as well as how we can build networks to shift power towards them in relevant political processes and build alliances for wider economic justice.”

Andria Barrett – Canada – “Empowering Global ROSCA Users through Digital Financial Inclusion” – focuses on Rotating Savings & Credit Associations (ROSCA) users and aims to discover what steps need to be taken to support their transition to using digital financial tools that encourage global participation.

“I grew up watching my Mother remit money back to Jamaica every 2 weeks. It was an expensive and cumbersome process for her. The idea of an open system that is inclusive and removes barriers is what I wish existed for her years ago. This grant will allow me to introduce open payments/open technology to ROSCA app developers. The more ROSCA apps created, the more people globally will be able to participate to keep this traditional way of saving money alive.”

Caroline Sinders – Brooklyn, NY – “By Design? The Hidden Harms Within Banking Apps” – highlights how harmful design patterns are barriers to digital inclusion because they unintentionally trick, confuse, manipulate, or nudge users into making unintended decisions.

“This project aims to provide those building new digital financial services with insights on how to design inclusively and mitigate the risk of unintentional harm when engaging with demographics or contexts. By surfacing, documenting and naming  these examples of harmful design, we can strengthen digital financial inclusion by ensuring that software and design are as equitable, and easier to use for everyone, as possible.”

Each of the ambassadors will present their work at this year’s Interledger Summit in Mexico City in November  2025.

Among these initiatives is work with private fintech companies to streamline remittances for a major bank in Pakistan, power microloans for community-based financial institutions in Uganda, and enable international payments for online marketplaces in Jamaica. 

The Interledger Foundation (ILF), a non-profit organisation focused on building an open, interoperable payments network, has announced the launch of eight new initiatives—three technology-focused and five research-based—to boost financial inclusion and global digital payments.

The new projects, based in Pakistan, Uganda, and Jamaica, aim to overcome systemic barriers in cross-border payments, remittances, and economic access. 

With these additions, the Foundation’s investment now exceeds 200 projects, furthering its mission to create a seamless global financial system that works for everyone. 

Although in some countries, making a digital payment is as easy as a few clicks on a smartphone, there is currently no global standard for digital payments. This has resulted in a financial system that is fragmented, slow, and inaccessible. 

Further, as many as one-third of people across the globe can’t participate in local or global commerce through digital payments. Interledger Foundation is working to overcome these roadblocks with a two-fold approach: 1) Building the Internet of Opportunity with Interledger, where payments become as borderless and frictionless as the Internet. And 2) researching and developing new social methods to bring digital payments to new audiences.  

The three new technological projects include: 

• Paysys Labs streamlines remittances for a major Pakistani bank. Working with Allied Bank Limited, a Pakistani commercial bank, Paysys will leverage ILP to turn customer accounts into digital wallets, which can then transact funds with other digital wallets on the Interledger Network. This will reduce the high costs and delays that characterize cross-border payments in Pakistan. 
• BessPay enables international payments for online marketplaces in Jamaica and the Caribbean. BessPay is working to overcome the high fees and coverage gaps with established digital payments providers in emerging markets with Interledger Open Payments. This project will empower small and medium businesses to launch their own marketplace on the Sharetribe Marketplace Platform and engage in cross-border business with low-cost, quick transactions.
• Kanzu Finance powers microloans for community-based financial institutions in Uganda. Leveraging ILP, Kanzu Finance seeks to foster economic empowerment and entrepreneurship in Uganda. By powering automated credit scoring, integration with digital wallets, and instant loan distribution and repayment, the organization will spur local economic development and lead to the growth of community-based financial institutions. 

Interledger Foundation has additionally increased investments in existing projects, such as with the People’s Clearinghouse to create a remittance pathway between the US and 140 community banks in rural Mexico, and Wallet Guru to develop a pay-as-you-go utility and entertainment payment solution. 

Interledger Foundation has also funded  five research projects designed to explore and ultimately define methods that will boost economic engagement and sustainable growth, both in established and emerging economies. 

This work will examine harmful design practices in digital financial interfaces, uncover why people in established economies still don’t have access to financial services and other issues surrounding global digital finance. 

“We’ve tasked ourselves and our partners with a substantial challenge: build a new financial system that operates like the internet to transcend traditional barriers and create new opportunities,” said Chris Lawrence, chief program officer at The Interledger Foundation. 

“Each organization and individual we work with plays an integral role in progressing open payments standards so that technical and societal roadblocks do not limit financial growth on a local and global scale. With each new project, we further push what’s possible beyond the financial systems we know today.”  

This year, from July 1 to August 1, 2025, Interledger Foundation will accept proposals from organizations interested in contributing to its growing interoperable network. 

This grant program, which opened in February, provides up to $50,000 USD to higher education institutions committed to empowering students to advocate, champion, and develop solutions for inclusive digital financial systems.

The NextGen Higher Education Program aims to advance research, curriculum development, and hands-on training, equipping students and educators with expertise in open-payment technologies and digital finance while opening doors to emerging fintech career opportunities.

“Creating programs like this aligns with Interledger’s mission to expand access to digital financial services for the 1.4 billion people currently excluded from traditional banking,” said Chris Lawrence, chief program officer at the Interledger Foundation. “The NextGen Higher Education Program serves as a catalyst, empowering students to innovate and lead the development of inclusive digital financial systems.”

How to apply

• To apply, the Interledger Foundation is currently welcoming Letters of Intent (LOIs) from diverse higher education institutions ready to establish or expand programs that provide real-world experience in open-source practices, open-payment technologies, and digital financial systems.
• Higher education institutions that can apply include: public and private (two to four-year institutions), institutional systems or consortia of institutions and university-affiliated research centers or laboratories.
• Applying universities also must align the proposed initiative with their undergraduate or graduate departments of computer science, information technology, business, sustainable development, or related fields.

More information about the NextGen Higher Education program can be downloaded here:  2025 Grant Application Guidelines.

To be considered, educators need to submit a Letter of Intent(LOI) by 11:59 pm (ET) on October 3, 2025.

N.B.: Only LOI’s submitted on the submittable platform will be considered.

Together, both companies will enable consumers without bank accounts to send and receive money through bankless digital wallets, as well as instantly convert it into a traditional or emerging payment method of their choosing. 

This will enable businesses and individuals — including freelancers, remote workers and beneficiaries of cash-based transfers (CBT) — to bypass significant bank fees, exchange rates and other transaction charges that are traditionally required to send and receive money internationally. 

For many businesses and workers, cross-border payments are a lifeline. The global freelance economy, for instance, now includes more than 1.5 billion individuals, many of whom make their living through international work. 

The options for sending and receiving international payments, however, are still largely limited to traditional financial systems that require a formal bank account, and come with steep fees of up to 12% per transaction and extended wait times. 

In markets with limited access to traditional banks, individuals without bank accounts face even more fees for converting funds into digital alternatives, such as Mobile Money and airtime, in order to exchange currency via their mobile phone number.

Together, the Interledger Foundation and Chimoney will make cross-border payments a reality in more than 130 countries. 

Using the Interledger Foundation’s Interledger Protocol (ILP)—an open, neutral protocol for transferring money—and its Rafiki software to power payments through Chimoney’s Payment Infrastructure, the companies will give businesses the ability to send international payments quickly to any phone number or email at a fraction of the cost of current systems, with no fees passed on to the end consumer. 

Consumers will additionally be able to send feeless cross-border and local payments to other digital wallets in the Interledger network, as well as convert payments into their preferred currency from Chimoney’s digital wallet. 

This includes local options such as the USD, CAD and Africa’s M-PESA; and unconventional payment methods including gift cards, Mobile Money and airtime.   

Early pioneers in the cross-border payments space have made headway in bringing cross-border payments to individuals with bank accounts, but don’t serve those without them. 

Current offerings are also limited in terms of the countries and currencies they support, and payments usually take anywhere from one to three days, rather than hitting accounts instantly.

“At Chimoney, our mission has always been to break down financial barriers and enable universal access to financial services,” notes Uchi Uchibeke, founder and CEO, Chimoney. 

“Our partnership with the Interledger Foundation is a monumental step in this journey. These advancements will democratize access to financial services, just as the internet democratized access to information.” 

Recognizing the challenges that come with facilitating payments in multiple international markets—each with its own unique regulations—Chimoney’s ready-to-implement API gives companies the ability to embed cross-border payments into their offerings quickly, with regulations and compliance already built in. 

“Chimoney’s bankless cross-border payments model is evidence of how the entire financial industry can leverage open technology to create new offerings for those who haven’t had them before now,” said Briana Marbury, president and CEO, The Interledger Foundation. “Our work together puts us one step closer to a sustainable, interconnected global payments network.”

As a recipient of Interledger’s Digital Financial Services grant program, aimed at growing interoperable payment capabilities across global financial infrastructures, Chimoney is one of several companies paving the way toward a new standard for open-source financial inclusion worldwide.

The grant, according to information available to Techeconomy, is aimed at adequately preparing tomorrow’s open-source, open-payment, and digital financial inclusion workforce.

To do this, Interledger Foundation are looking for educators in higher education institutions to build campus and classroom programs that expose students to emerging open payment technologies with the potential to disrupt the economic landscape.

Through such partnerships, Interledger will fund programs that will produce diverse pathways for undergraduate and graduate students, creating a future where people build fairer, inclusive, and interoperable payment networks.

Visit here to learn more about the Next-Gen Higher Education Grant and the work done by pilot initiatives with Bowie State University and the University of Cape Town. 

Through the Next-Gen Higher Education Grant, Interledger seeks to support projects with plans to:

• Enable faculty to implement effective forward-thinking initiatives to enable digital financial literacy and inclusion.
• Increase student engagement, interaction, and learning about open-payment technologies, open-source, and digital financial inclusion with a significant focus on the Interledger Protocol and related technologies.
• Showcase career pathways in open payments, open-source, sustainable development, and the multi-disciplinary fintech space.

Interested universities must align the proposed initiative with their undergraduate or graduate departments of computer science, information technology, business, sustainable development, or related fields.

What You Need To Know

The proposed project/initiative should be built on diversity, equity, inclusion principles and support the Interledger Foundation’s goal to foster an empowering ecosystem for digital financial inclusion.

The Interledger-NextGen Higher Education Grant will accept project considerations for a project length of up to 12 months and for funding up to USD 50,000 to cover work on the proposed project and any costs associated with event participation, training, or software development.

Interested universities must submit an electronic copy of their Letter of Intent (LOI) via Submittable by July 11, 2024, at 11:59 pm (EDT).

More Details

Interested universities can submit their letter of intent here starting Thursday, May 30, 2024, at 12:00 am (EDT).

Universities will be asked to upload a 2-page PDF outlining the overall proposed project’s objectives, its intended impact, and the estimated budget/grant amount being sought with an indication of what the majority of the budget will be spent on.

A summary overview of the proposed program, including a high-level description of the activities to be undertaken, e.g., course offering, curriculum reboot/development, etc.

The project should indicate some level of investigation, integration, student exposure to the Interledger Protocol, and engagement with the ILF ecosystem.

The proposed initiative should focus on developing skills in open payment technologies, social impact, entrepreneurship, and international development research. Successful projects must have a theory of impact.

Through the Interledger Foundation Research Grant, Mifos will explore how the Interledger Protocol (ILP) can be part of Digital Public Infrastructure and contribute to democratizing financial services through its open protocol suite for sending payments across different ledgers.

Mifos has pioneered open-source banking technology for the past fifteen years, transforming the entire sector at each major stage of evolution from microfinance to financial inclusion to digital financial services.

They were chosen as an MIT Solver for the 2021 Digital Inclusion Global Challenge and awarded the 2021 and 2022 Banking Tech Awards for Best Contribution to Economic Mobility in Banking & Finance.

Their building blocks for banking are recognized as digital public goods within digital public infrastructure to achieve the UN SDG of no poverty. Through making a core banking commoditized infrastructure, any organization can embed any financial service to any customer via any channel.

Briana Marbury, president & CEO of Interledger Foundation says,

“We are delighted to work with Mifos to support their mission of advancing the financial health of the underbanked to further digital financial inclusion efforts as a whole.“

Mifos is working with BaaSFlow, GH Solutions Consultants, and Brook IT Consulting to undertake this research with the goal of identifying the next steps for ensuring that Interledger is a part of Digital Public Infrastructure considerations for implementers.

Their research will bring together a range of stakeholders and experts in ILP, Digital Public Goods, G2P payments, and in-country experts to understand how this can be achieved and barriers to adoption that need to be overcome.

Their research will be made available through open communities and contribute to Interledger Foundation’s Mission to build equity and inclusion within a global interoperable payments network.

Ed Cable, president and CEO of Mifos, says:

“As a mission-driven organization, we are excited to explore the possibilities of the Interledger Protocol (ILP) as a building block within our growing ecosystem to improve people’s lives through access to financial services.”

BaaSFlow brings to the project its expertise in architecting and contributing to digital public goods.

“We’re looking forward to exploring how the Interledger Protocol and the Open Payments concept can be applied to Digital Public Infrastructure thinking in the context of Digital Public Goods like Mifos, Fineract, and G2P payments”, states BaaSFlow’s CEO James Dailey.

Interledger Foundation and JOPACC announce partnership to promote financial inclusion in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

The partnership will utilize the power of interoperability by using the Interledger Protocol (ILP) and Open Payments.

Located in West Asia and with a population of over 11 million people, Jordan has a high population of refugees and immigrants.

Women face significant financial inclusion gaps for bank account ownership and digital payment usage.

The rate of account ownership in 2022 was 34% for women and 66% for men, a gap of 32%.  A 2021 survey found that only 25% of Jordanians had ever used mobile banking and 13% had ever used online banking.

“This partnership is another landmark step in helping to lower the 53% of adults who are currently financially excluded from financial services in Jordan,” said Maha Bahou, CEO of Jordan Payments and Clearing Company(JoPACC). “As a mother, I know the struggles and stress of needing to send funds to my child abroad. There are so many logistical challenges and added costs. ”I know this will help at least one million people in my country with cross border payments and

fintech and protocols like Interledger will help them to make seamless payments.”

“Although Jordan is a small country, it is one of the most advanced in terms of adopting innovative technologies in payments. Banks in Jordan are open-minded and keen to provide solutions to all of its people,” said Briana Marbury, President and CEO of the Interledger Foundation. “We are excited about this partnership with JoPACC, furthering our mission to create a world that is financially inclusive and our alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).”

The Interledger Summit took place from November 5-8 in San Jose, Costa Rica. The Summit is a continuation of the nonprofit’s effort to bring a diverse range of voices and solutions into the tech ecosystem by working with historically marginalized groups.

People came together from 26 countries and community-led organizations (many of whom are our grantees) who are building financial inclusion and open payment solutions from within their communities, alongside tech engineers, developers, and financial inclusion organizations in international development.

Attendees shared innovative products and services with the common goal of building equity and interoperability within a global payments network powered by ILP, and served as an inspiring opportunity to collaborate ideas, insights, and challenges in the digital financial inclusion space.

[Featured Image Credit]

This partnership marks a groundbreaking endeavor to democratize cross-border payments, enabling financial access for users across the globe.

Chimoney’s mission is crystal clear: to unlock economic opportunities for everyone, everywhere. This mission dovetails seamlessly with Interledger Foundation’s vision of a more equitable global society through an open payments network. Together, they aim to break down financial barriers, ensuring that financial services are a universal birthright.

Uchi Uchibeke, CEO of Chimoney, expressed his optimism about the partnership: “Our collaboration with the Interledger Foundation is a testament to our commitment to a more inclusive financial landscape. We look forward to exploring the possibilities this partnership brings and bringing Bank Accounts, Mobile Money, Airtime, and other payment options to the Interledger Ecosystem.”

When asked about the partnership with Chimoney, Briana Marbury, the CEO and President of the Interledger Foundation said;

“We are excited to have awarded the ILP Financial Services grant to Uchi Uchibeke, founder of Chimoney. Our partnership with Chimoney creates more opportunities to further the goals of global financial inclusion. We are also looking forward to Uchi speaking at our Interledger Summit this year in Costa Rica, where he and many other innovators in this space will share their insights.”

The primary focus of this partnership is the integration of the Interledger Protocol (ILP) into Chimoney’s ecosystem. ILP, an open-source framework, offers a decentralized platform for frictionless cross-border transactions.

This integration promises to simplify financial transactions across different blockchains and payment networks.

Chimoney’s integration of Rafiki capabilities into Chimoney Wallets further amplifies this vision, ensuring a seamless financial experience for users.

The potential of this partnership is boundless. Interledger Protocol (ILP)  could revolutionize cross-border payments, making them faster and more cost-effective. It could also pave the way for innovative financial solutions tailored to underserved communities.

“Chimoney extends an invitation to organizations and individuals who share our commitment to financial inclusion. Together, we are making financial services as accessible as sending an email, ensuring that financial inclusion becomes a reality for all”, Marbury said.

As this partnership progresses, Chimoney remains steadfast in its mission: unlocking economic opportunities for everyone, everywhere.