Ripple is stepping up its commercial expansion within Latin America’s enterprise ledger landscape. Operating through its global University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI), the firm joined forces with the Fundação Getulio Vargas Digital Finance Center to conclude the first Brazilian cohort of the University Digital Asset Xcelerator (UDAX).
The targeted 8-week program concluded with a dedicated Demo Day at the FGV Auditorium in São Paulo, introducing nine specialized fintech startups built on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) directly to regional venture capital networks, compliance experts, and engineering mentors.
Academia meets XRPL
Ripple said founders received one-on-one mentoring from company executives alongside professors from FGV, the University of California, Berkeley, and Brazilian universities. The curriculum also included workshops on business strategy, fundraising, regulation, and product development.
According to Ripple, participating startups reported:
- 83% average increase in product maturity.
- 53% improvement in investment readiness.
- 33% increase in founders’ confidence in their business models.
- 15% average growth in active users or paying customers.
Lauren Weymouth, Ripple’s Senior Director of University Partnerships, said the latest cohort showed that blockchain innovation is increasingly focused on solving real-world challenges rather than simply advancing the technology itself.
“What stood out in this cohort wasn’t just the technology but it was who it serves,” Weymouth said, highlighting projects ranging from tokenized credit for family farmers to infrastructure designed to support regulated digital finance.
Jéfferson Colombo, Director of FGV Digital Finance and professor at Fundação Getulio Vargas, said the accelerator helped narrow the gap between academic research and commercial blockchain adoption. “UDAX closes that gap by putting our faculty and Brazil’s most promising founders in the same room to turn rigorous research into real companies,” Colombo said, adding that the partnership aims to accelerate innovation in Brazil’s digital asset sector.
Nine XRPL startups driving innovation
The cohort included Levery, Kapitale, VS1 Finance, BillPay, TrustBond, PixNow, Regolda, Lendara, and C9 Tech, with projects spanning tokenization, payments, stablecoins, real-world assets, and blockchain infrastructure.
Among them, Levery launched an RLUSD sandbox for financial institutions, processing more than 44,000 on-chain transactions and expanding its client base from seven to 12 organizations. Kapitale advanced receivables tokenization on XRPL, while VS1 Finance continued developing its platform for regulated tokenized corporate bond issuance.
BillPay refined its Brazil-Paraguay settlement infrastructure, TrustBond expanded its blockchain-based donation platform, PixNow strengthened its go-to-market strategy, and Regolda advanced its gold-backed token project.
Meanwhile, Lendara continued building blockchain-based microcredit solutions for family farming, while C9 Tech strengthened its enterprise offerings for payments, tokenization, and real-world assets on XRPL.
Expanding in Brazil
The Brazil launch is part of Ripple’s wider University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI), which funds academic research and blockchain education, and supports commercial applications built on XRPL.
The program concluded with a Demo Day at FGV, during which entrepreneurs, investors, academics, Ripple executives, and members of Brazil’s blockchain community came together to see the progress of the startups.
Ripple’s latest accelerator shows its ongoing commitment to grow the XRP Ledger ecosystem, with several participants preparing for commercial launches and regulated pilots to help university-backed blockchain projects move towards real-world financial applications.
Also Read: BlackRock, JPMorgan, Coinbase & Ripple Join 54-Firm UK Tokenization Taskforce
