Ripple Labs has shared its plans to expand to the Asia Pacific region by opening a digital currency office in Sydney, Australia. The company, which was formerly known as OpenCoin, developed the Ripple protocol which interconnects the world’s financial systems to enable the secure, real-time transfer of funds in any currency.
Ripple Labs is a San Francisco-based startup funded by investors from Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, IDG Capital Partners, and Core Innovation Capital.
Digital Currency Acceptance in Asia Pacific
With its latest move to open a digital currency office in Australia, Ripple Labs is hoping to expand its market reach to the region. “We are excited to formally unveil a presence in Asia Pacific — an area that has been aggressively pursuing faster payment technologies for both domestic and cross-border payments,” mentioned Ripple Labs CEO Chris Larsen.
This expansion is targeted to meet the growing demand for digital currency in the Asia Pacific market. With the Ripple currency, any form of value such as currencies or commodities can be exchange worldwide.
Banks and financial institutions in the Asia Pacific region can now have better access to Ripple services, which include money transfer and payment services. Dilip Rao has been appointed as the managing director of Ripple Labs Asia Pacific and he cited that he is thrilled to have the company serve markets in India, Singapore, and the Middle East. Rao was the founder and CEO of Australia’s first peer-to-peer payments company, Paymate.
Ripple Labs also has plans to open more digital currency offices in central and eastern Asia within the year and the next. The company also has plans to tie up with large institutions and central banks to foster increased acceptance of the digital currency. At the moment, numerous third-party gateways are already in existence in Japan, China, Israel, South Korea and India, which might provide a bit of competition for Ripple Labs.