In a recent blog post, Stellar-powered TechStars payments announced the 12 startups chosen for its inaugural accelerator program. According to the announcement, TechStars selected these startups based on the innovative payment solutions they provide to emerging or underserved markets in categories such as financial infrastructure, investing, personal finance management, lending, financial literacy, and payments.
This TechStars program is the first physical education for tech startups in Latin America. This is a hybrid program where the TechStars team will meet virtually and physically with the teams of these startups. Physical meetings will be held in Miami, Mexico City and Dallas and will last for a week at each location.
The overall duration of the program is 90 days and founders from South America (particularly Brazil, Argentina and Chile), the United States, Latin America and Mexico will participate.
A huge underserved market
Stellar Lumens, a blockchain-based distributed ledger, and MoneyGram, a digital payments giant, are the primary sponsors of this program. It is worth noting that Stellar Lumens and MoneyGram are also partners and have created a robust fintech ecosystem in emerging markets, including Latin American countries.
TechStars Payments Acceleration Program Director Tricia Martinez believes there are endless opportunities for financial inclusion and fintech innovation in Latin American countries as the market is largely underserved. Martinez added that many companies are looking for solutions to problems in their operations, such as currency volatility and malfunctioning infrastructure.
Similarly, consumers want efficient systems and pay hefty fees to carry out their financial transactions.
The startups of the inaugural program
The 12 startups chosen by TechStars for its first accelerator program are:
- Banca.me, which intends to provide easier, cheaper and faster access to loans for residents of Latin America.
- Bundil aims to facilitate investment for average residents. It intends to launch an automated system that deducts residual amounts from users' daily purchases with credit cards. Then, it invests those amounts in various financial instruments, such as stocks and cryptocurrencies. A side benefit is that this method allows users to develop healthy investment habits.
- College Cash intends to help students earn cash rewards for the content they share daily on social platforms. For this it will partner with brands and will be available to all students, including high school students, who will be able to use their rewards to offset student loans.
- Lenme plans to offer short-term cryptocurrency loans to businesses, institutions and individuals.
- Mica focuses on the tenants. Its innovative solution will help tenants rent out their chosen apartment, automate bill payments and reduce moving costs, among other benefits.
- oink intends to help young adults automate theirs savings and investments. Users can automate setting rules to easily save and reach their financial goals.
The other six startups on the list are Moneo, Mox, Ola, Pactta, Uils and Zumma. Meanwhile, Stellar Lumens native XLM token is reacting positively to the development. In the last 24 hours, it has risen by 3,2% and, according to our data, is trading at $0,075.
Other positive developments in the Stellar Lumens ecosystem could push XLM price towards the $0,10 mark in the near term.
