Quick Facts:

Xago is the first Ripple (XRP) in Africa.

Xago was founded in 2016.

Xago was incubated out of CiTi’s Bandwidth Barn.

South African based fintech startup, Xago has launched the first-ever Ripple (XRP) only gateway and exchange in South Africa.

This development was announced in a press release on Wednesday, October 9th. Aside from becoming the first company to do this in South Africa, Xago is the first Ripple only exchange built in Africa.

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The Xago exchange was built to create liquidity of XRP in South Africa, acting as the market-making platform for cryptocurrency enthusiasts and businesses that wish to trade with and utilize XRP and the Ripple Ledger.

On the reason for building a Ripple (XRP) only exchange, CEO Jurgen Kuhnel mentioned the need for a faster and more cost-effective ledger to compete in retail and banking environments.

She said:

By solving the double-spending problem the Bitcoin blockchain opened up digital peer-to-peer payments without the need for a trusted 3rd party through the process of mining. Ripple took this one step further and built a faster and more cost-effective decentralized ledger to compete in the high throughput and fast clearing retail and banking environments,

Xago uses a mobile identification system that connects mobile devices, blockchain, and retail all in one experience. Where Xago is utilized, it will replace the need for acquirers and card networks for retailers, and with the use of RippleNet and XRP enable cross-border payments in the future.

Users can now pay for goods and transact at the point of sale using only their mobile and mobile number, bypassing traditional payment rails.

The Cape Town-based company was founded Xago was founded by Jurgen Kuhnel (CEO), Sonya Kuhnel (COO) and Mark Chirnside (Chairman) in 2016 and incubated out of CiTi’s Bandwidth Barn .

In 2018, Xago received investment from African Technology Investments Ltd. Xago also mentioned their intentions to build a product that complies with existing regulations in South Africa and plans to expand their services and products beyond SA in due time.