Ripple has a spring in its step with the launch of Xpring (pronounced “spring”) to invest in, incubate, acquire and provide grants to companies and projects, reports Antony Peyton of Fintech Futures, Finovate’s sister publication.

Self-promotion is naturally part of its logic, as “every entrepreneur” will use Ripple’s digital asset XRP and the XRP Ledger, the open-source, decentralized technology behind XRP, to solve their customers’ problems.

Ripple said it wants to act as a “proverbial spring” to let people “grow their businesses and prosper”.

Ethan Beard will be SVP and lead Xpring and Ripple’s developer programme. Before moving into an advisor role at several technology companies, Beard served as director of the Facebook Developer Network from 2009-2012.

“Blockchain and digital assets have the ability to solve important problems and XRP – with its speed, scalability and demonstrated real-world use case – is a great tool for start-ups and entrepreneurs to build businesses around,” Beard said.

According to Ripple, Xpring has already offered support. People and firms include:

• 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 ILP for various micropayments applications;
• Bart and Brad Stephens, co-founders of Blockchain Capital, who have the first fund to accept capital calls in digital assets.

In a separate development, Mitsubishi Corporation, MUFG Bank, Bank of Ayudhya (Krungsri), a Thailand-based subsidiary of MUFG, and Standard Chartered have started a pilot test for moving real funds over RippleNet, Ripple’s network.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in San Francisco, Ripple made its Finovate debut (as OpenCoin) at FinovateSpring 2013. The company has raised more than $93 million in funding and includes SBI Investment, Santander InnoVentures, IDG Capital Partners, and Core Innovation Partners among its investors. Brad Garlinghouse is CEO.