Stellar Development Foundation has unveiled the $30 Million Matching Fund. It is a new approach to co-investing with investors worldwide, as well as matching investment raised by a lead investor of up $500,000. This Fund will be available to pre-seed and Series B companies that are interested in the Stellar Blockchain. It also offers an opportunity to increase their fundraising efforts.

SDF created the Fund in order to help more startups to access capital and grow their blockchain-based businesses. This is especially important in countries where there may not be a lot of venture ecosystems, and in which capital requirements are high from financial service companies.

Andrea Lo, SDF’s Head of Investments, said, “The Matching Fund is a way for SDF to promote early stage experimentation for real-world use cases that provide value to more consumers. In 2022, we’re putting our funding behind more innovators in geographies that need blockchain-powered solutions. The Stellar ecosystem is working to address challenges like inflation, affordable remittances, and the high cost of capital — and we’re investing in solutions to these problems through the Matching Fund.”

The Fund’s first four investments announced today support a range of companies working on diverse markets and use cases, from payroll in Latin America to remittances in Africa.

Trace Finance, a trans-border payment platform using stablecoins, helps startups in Latin America to access funds raised overseas faster (up to two days instead of months), and more affordably (from just 4% to 0.2% per transaction). Brazil is where Trace Finance is based. But, inflation has been an issue in Brazil. The local startup market is growing rapidly with a record amount of IPOs expected to take place in 2021. Stellar’s stablecoins could be leveraged to help them reduce costs, and give users more financial products. Circle Ventures and HOF Capital are co-investors.

Bitwage offers crypto-powered invoicing and payroll services worldwide, with an emphasis on Latin America. International freelancers will be increasingly interested in being paid in crypto and stablecoins to have a quicker and more liquid reserve of value. Bitwage is aiming to increase its share of $1.2 trillion in the market. It has already processed $120million worth transactions. Integration with Stellar may optimize transactions in difficult-to-reach areas. Draper Associates is a co-investor in Bitwage. Gaingels is a co-investor.

Afriex is an app for payments that solves the problem of slow, expensive remittance payments. Users in developing markets such as Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya can receive cross-border free payments. They could also integrate with Stellar’s anchor network to expand their reach into other markets. Future Africa, Softbank, Precursor Ventures, and Softbank are co-investors.

FanVestor, a crowdfunding platform connecting NFT creators and their customers is called FanVestor. FanVestor will use the investment to test Stellar, which is more cost-effective and easier than NFTs from other chains. This could allow them to reach creators who are not in well-served areas. FanVestor has several co-investors, including Formic Ventures as well as industry-specific angels.

Denelle Dixon, SDF’s CEO and Executive Director, said, “We need to be more nimble and inclusive in order to truly build an industry that reaches more people with better access to financial services. It is important to choose how companies are funded and supported in their initial stages. SDF actively encourages investments in practical use cases for blockchain, which help ordinary people. We invite companies to apply and see how Stellar’s dynamic global ecosystem can support your growth.”

The Matching Fund is an investment track within SDF’s Enterprise Fund targeting new or existing Stellar ecosystem companies.

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