The ILP Digital Financial Services Grant supports ideas around Interledger-driven business models that seek to build equity and inclusion within a global interoperable payments network. This grant is designed to help the Interledger Foundation’s vision for a world where everyone can send a payment as easily as an email. 

Expanding digital financial inclusion through inclusive systems means advocating for the adoption of an open-source, currency-agnostic payment network powered by the Interledger Protocol (ILP). Through this grant, we want to see the development of digital financial services solutions and products, some of which will participate as Interledger network nodes; including digital wallets, mobile money providers, banks, savings coops, and neo-banks. 

While the grant's core focus remains on becoming a node in the Interledger Network, we are also keen to incorporate the interests of those with innovative ideas that can foster greater adoption and usage within the Network, even if they have no intent of becoming an actual node. This flexibility is reflected in the two tracks we are offering for consideration by applications, empowering you to shape your proposal according to your unique vision and goals.

• Interledger | Enabled - This grant opportunity is for existing digital financial service entities to implement Rafiki into their working financial infrastructure, resulting in a new node on the Interledger Network.
• Interledger | Unlocked - Do you need to expand your payment options in your web-based platform? Then you could use our Open Payment APIs and take advantage of this grant opportunity. A good example of an ideal candidate for this grant is an e-commerce site or donation platform.

For both tracks 1 and 2, each submission must highlight a clear plan for the following, where applicable:

• Describe or showcase an existing financial services solution or product, and its readiness to use or integrate into the Interledger network or suite of Interledger technologies. It must outline, where applicable,                              
  • A proof-of-concept, demos, and architectural diagrams outlining plans to incorporate the Open Payments API, ILP, or any other elements of the Interledger tech stack. 
  • Understand how the proposed service will enable money to be transferred to the ILP network.
  • Plan for interoperability across systems or currencies.

    
   

• Access to or involvement of an identified and engaged community ready to test, use, and benefit from the project. This can be indicative of the potential impact of a solution, and it shows the potential for a viable distribution channel for the solution. 

This grant will open on April 30, 3024 at noon (EDT) and will close on August 30, 2024 at 11:59 am (EDT). 

Through this grant, we want to ensure that emerging financial services, products, and innovative solutions come from and are created outside of the typical locales and demographics. To this end, we will increase the scoring of the following criteria in our judging process for this grant program:

• Projects are located in and serve geographical locations outside North America and Western Europe.
• Projects where a lead applicant is a person of color or the team represents a diverse group.
• The output of the team benefits communities that have been historically underrepresented.
• Funds are explicitly budgeted to address the increasing participation of historically marginalized and underrepresented communities.
• The project displays an understanding and commitment to using open-source principles, including open-source software adoption.

This grant opportunity is ONLY available to registered entities such as companies (startup phase or already established), NGOs, Educational institutions, and Co-Operatives. 

Interested applicants can download a copy of the Application Guide for the ILP Digital Financial Services grant to access information on the grant process, requirements, resource list, and other details essential to applying for this opportunity. 

We invite you to connect with us via email at programteam@interledger.org or through our various communication channels: Community Forum, and Interledger Slack. Feel free to join the #cfp-financial-services group or utilize the grant inquiry request form to ask specific questions or get further details on this grant opportunity.