Omidyar Network has announced it has invested in e-Currency Mint (eCM). eCM is a new technology enabling central banks to issue digital fiat currency, called e-Currency.
In a statement, the network said the investment is in line with its Omidyar Network’s Financial Inclusion initiative which focuses on supporting innovative technologies to massively increase reach and scale impact of affordable, convenient, and flexible financial services to consumers and small businesses globally.
Funds raised during the series C round of the investments led by Omidyar Network, would make eCM’s path-breaking technology available to central banks around the world, enabling them to efficiently and securely evolve their national currencies to keep pace with today’s digital world, the statement added.
Partner at Omidyar, Mr. Tilman Ehrbeck said: “Paper-based money is becoming an antiquated tool in an increasingly digital economy. It often causes those who rely heavily on cash to conduct their financial lives to be locked out of the formal financial system and the opportunities it presents. eCurrency can help accelerate financial inclusion by turning today’s digital value systems into sovereign-backed national currencies, increasing trust, and addressing key issues hindering their adoption today, such as interoperability.”
Founder and CEO of e-CM, Mr. Jonathan Dharmapalan said: “As technological advancements have connected people globally, the payments industry has provided them with better, digital ways to transact. If we think of digital transaction platforms as a system of pipes, then mobile has added the last miles of these pipes, and the internet is reaching people at the farthest corners of the world. But as this digital revolution has been taking place, the issuance of currency has essentially remained the same.”
“What eCurrency will enable central banks to do is to issue a single, safe digital currency instrument running through these pipes, making the entire system more secure, transparent, efficient, and more importantly, trustworthy, now backed by the country’s central bank,” he added.
