A newly-formed trio, consisting of the B2B payment and financing platform Tribal Credit, the LatAm crypto exchange Bitso, and the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), have come together to create instant and cheaper cross-border payment services between Mexico and the US.
Tribal Credit’s latest cross-border payment service will enable companies operating in Mexico to send B2B payments in Pesos to the US, where recipients will receive the payments in USD.
Mohamed Elkasstawi, Tribal Credit’s Chief Strategy Officer who is spearheading the company’s blockchain efforts, said: “Our goal is to save time and money for SMBs across LatAm who are sending payments to the US, particularly payments that are time-sensitive or require improved traceability.”
62 million SMBs are transacting globally every year, with the LatAm region representing a $175billion market opportunity led by Mexico. Tribal Credit’s affordable cross-border payment option is facilitated by Bitso, the region’s most liquid crypto exchange, which will, in turn, enable Pesos to Stellar USDC conversion.
“Bitso and Tribal Credit share a common mission of providing top-tier financial services to SMBs across Latin America,” said Carlos Cota, Product Manager at Bitso. “Our hand in providing rails for moving funds from Mexican to US businesses reflects our belief in the potential for cryptocurrency to revolutionise payment transactions in a global digital economy.”
Tribal’s cross-border payments will utilise the open-source Stellar network, a decentralised sustainable network for financial products and services that supports cross-currency transactions and digital asset issuance.
“Partnerships like this show how Stellar ecosystem companies can help improve and extend financial services in emerging markets. Combining the lending capabilities of Tribal with Bitso’s exchange, and leveraging the low cost and high speed of Stellar USDC, this partnership has the potential to significantly expand financial access for SMBs in the LatAm region,” according to SDF Vice President of Business Development and Partnerships, Mark Heynen.
Using a proprietary, AI-driven approval process, Tribal provides a suite of financial services to help SMBs in Latin America pay expenses and optimise their financial management, including multi-currency corporate Visa cards with spending controls, credit lines for on-card purchases and a payroll service for employees and contractors.
“With Tribal Credit’s new cross-border payment service, we’re leveraging blockchain technology and cryptocurrency for backend design to dramatically improve front-end user experience,” said Arvind Nimbalker, Global Head of Product of Tribal Credit. “Businesses can enjoy all the benefits of blockchain technology without needing to become experts in the space.”
Tribal Credit beta launched in December 2019 offering corporate cards and a spend management platform for startups and SMBs in emerging markets. With the increased demand for more efficient online B2B banking experiences, especially at the onset of the pandemic, Tribal Credit expanded its payments and financing products to include Tribal Pay, helping customers settle non-card purchases and benefit from extended payment terms.
