Emtech
EMTECH connects central banks and fintech companies through compliant central bank digital currency (CBDC) infrastructure.
Website: https://emtech.com/
HQ: New York, New York, United States
Active Markets: Global; specifically, the Caribbean and Africa
Problem Addressed
Large portions of global financial services are developing alternatives to physical cash in the form of digital currencies. These innovations address challenges in liquidity, improved value transfer efficiencies, and increased financial access globally. However, many of these options come with high levels of volatility, making them difficult to use as a stable form of money. Central Bank Digital Currencies can bring the increased opportunity of digitized cash with important properties such as legal tender status and full backing by the same banks that back paper cash.
Project Description
Emtech provides CBDC digital infrastructure for Central Banks and FinTech companies to test and develop their compliance and CBDC capabilities. Emtech offers a regulatory sandbox API platform which streamlines the regulatory application process and facilitates data reporting and CBDC tokenization infrastructure. EMTECH believes this will increase access for unbanked and underbanked communities, improve remittance distribution capabilities, facilitate cross border payments, grow E-commerce, and even increase liquidity in Web3 markets.
Progress to date
EMTECH has secured $10 million of funding over four rounds with their latest round completed in August 2023. In October 2023, the Bank of Ghana completed its first CBDC hackathon event with EMTECH’s digital currency solution. EMTECH partners include Microsoft, Hedera Hashgraph, Flutterwave, and Blade Labs among others.
Business Data
Status: Active
Constituency Served: Central banks; fintechs
Networks: Hedera
Known Investors: Matrix Partners India, Vested World, Collide Capital, The Equity Alliance, Black Tech Nation Ventures, LoftyInc Capital Management, Level Up Ventures, Consonance Investment Managers, Andrew Lundsten, Canaan Partners, 500 Global, NOEMIS Ventures, Octerra Capital, XFactor Ventures
Additional References: Money Reimagined: CBDCs Unleashed: Changing Finance for All!
Business Model
EMTECH offers tiered plan services for their SaaS offerings.
Traction
EMTECH’s clients include the United States Federal Reserve, and the Central Banks of Ghana, The Bahamas, and Nigeria. As of August 2023, EMTECH was working with 6 central banks in total.