In the world of blockchain and digital assets, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of interesting entrepreneurs flowing into the space. At Ripple, we want to act as a proverbial spring for the most serious ones — making sure they have the key essentials to grow their businesses and prosper.

That’s why today we are announcing Xpring (pronounced Spring). Xpring is a new initiative by Ripple that will invest in, incubate, acquire and provide grants to companies and projects run by proven entrepreneurs. Every entrepreneur will use the digital asset XRP and the XRP Ledger, the open-sourced, decentralized technology behind XRP, to solve their customers’ problems in a transformative way.

As a major contributor to the XRP Ledger codebase and large holder of XRP, we often hear from entrepreneurs and developers that they’d like support in one form or another to help them with their XRP-related projects. As one of the few blockchain companies with traction for a non-speculative use case, we feel we’re uniquely positioned to support entrepreneurs in a meaningful way.

In order to offer the best support, we need a great team. That’s why we’re bringing on Ethan Beard as a Senior Vice President to lead Xpring and Ripple’s developer program. Before moving into an advisor role at several technology companies, Ethan served as Director of the Facebook Developer Network from 2009-2012, where he oversaw worldwide developer relations, operations and product marketing for the Facebook API.

“I love helping startups leverage new technologies and developments to grow. At Facebook, we saw companies in areas like gaming, music, and news use our platform to become big businesses, said Ethan Beard, SVP at Ripple. “Blockchain and digital assets have the ability to solve important problems and XRP – with it’s speed, scalability and demonstrated real-world use case – is a great tool for startups and entrepreneurs to build businesses around.”

At Ripple, we will continue to use XRP to help financial institutions remove friction from global payments. However, the characteristics of XRP and the XRP Ledger – superior speed, scalability and stability — make it perfect for entrepreneurs looking to solve problems across identity, trade finance, gaming and virtual goods, provenance, real estate, insurance, digital media and many other industries. Xpring’s entrepreneurs and companies will leverage XRP for use cases like these, among others.

As of today, Xpring has already offered support to:

Scooter Braun, entertainment talent manager, entrepreneur and founder of SB Projects, who is pursuing several endeavors that will use XRP to improve artists’ ability to monetize and manage their content.

Stefan Thomas, inventor of the Interledger Protocol (ILP), creator of BitcoinJS, co-founder of TxtBear, who just launched a new venture Coil to use XRP and the Interledger Protocol (ILP) for various micropayments applications, such as facilitating “bite-sized” purchases of media. You can learn more about Coil here.

Thomas McLeod, serial entrepreneur, co-founder and CEO of Omni, who will soon integrate XRP as a currency into Omni’s marketplace.

Bart and Brad Stephens, co-founders of Blockchain Capital, who have the first fund to accept capital calls in digital assets with a focus on driving innovation in the blockchain sector.

“Blockchain technology and digital assets like XRP will provide artists with new distribution channels and revenue streams,” said Scooter Braun, founder of SB Projects. “This creates more space for artistic freedom, and I’m excited our team is among the first in the entertainment industry to lean into the blockchain movement. This is only the beginning as we will continue to build out more use cases for XRP. ”

While the Xpring team is already vetting hundreds of amazing projects, they remain open to hearing from serious entrepreneurs and businesses. For questions or to learn more, please visit Xpring’s website.