Interledger Foundation

The Interledger Foundation is a nonprofit working to make financial systems open and fair at a global scale. It’s changing the way financial systems connect and work together by stewarding open, independently governed payment standards, including the Interledger Protocol and Open Payments. The Foundation supports, funds, and connects the developers, researchers, educators, and advocates expanding access to digital financial services. It also works with regulators and institutions to create the conditions for open financial systems to operate in practice. Since 2020, the Interledger Foundation has committed over $21M in grants across 300+ projects in 45+ countries. Our Grantmaking Financial systems are often designed by centralized institutions without meaningful input from those who use them, build on them, or depend on them. As a result, they don’t work in practice and miss real needs, leaving over 1.3 billion people excluded from traditional banking services. The people best placed to solve the challenges of digital financial access are usually the ones closest to them. The Interledger Foundation supports their work. From financial service providers integrating open payment standards, to researchers, educators, policy advocates, and community builders working to expand what open financial infrastructure can do and who it reaches, we back the full range of that work. Systems change when people build, test, challenge, and carry out new ways of making them work. We fund work across technology, education, research, and policy. If this reflects what you’re doing, we may have a grant for you. ▪Build Create and implement open payment systems. For developers, startups, and financial service providers building tools, integrations, and financial infrastructure. ▪Educate Build knowledge and practical capability. For educators, universities, and students building skills in open payments technologies and financial inclusion. ▪Research Understand systems and barriers. For researchers analyzing infrastructure, regulation, access, and how financial systems operate across different contexts. ▪Lead Drive long-term work across financial systems. For emerging leaders across technology, policy, research, or community implementation. ▪Enable Shape the conditions for participation. For organizations working with regulators and institutions to make open financial systems viable in practice. ▪Create Envision a more equitable financial future. For artists, makers, and creative practitioners using any medium to challenge the assumptions built into financial systems.