Students from six South African universities came together at the 2026 UCT Hackathon to build innovative Open Payments solutions tackling real financial inclusion challenges. Beyond the winning projects, the event showcased the power of collaboration between academia and industry to develop talent, improve technology, and shape the future of open finance.
The Interledger Foundation is a global nonprofit grantmaking foundation, leading the next revolution in payments through Interledger, the global network for inclusive digital financial service providers.
Research across more than 20 countries found that instant payment systems often aim for inclusion but are designed in ways that exclude smaller financial providers through governance, regulatory, economic, and technical barriers.
The Interledger Foundation awarded its first SDK Grants to improve OpenAPI, Arazzo, and Kiota support for secure API automation and SDK generation. The funded projects add GNAP security support and Arazzo workflow capabilities, helping developers build safer, more automated API integrations.
Research project funded by an Interledger Foundation Public Policy Activation Grant exploring how BRICS governance models shape digital payment systems and end-user outcomes.
Web Monetization is now integrated into Google’s Offerwall, letting users directly support publishers through seamless micropayments alongside ads or surveys.
The Interledger Foundation launched “Interledger on Campus,” a global mini-grant program offering up to $5,000 for university student clubs to run short projects exploring open payments, financial access, and interoperability.
The Interledger Foundation has awarded a 2025 Digital Financial Services Grant to Fliqa, a Slovenia-based fintech integrating Open Payments and the Interledger Protocol into its open banking solutions. The partnership will help expand real-time, low-cost, interoperable payment options for merchants and advance more open and inclusive digital financial infrastructure.
The Interledger Foundation has awarded a $200,000 Grant for the Web to the Social Web Foundation to research sustainable revenue and governance models for decentralized, community-run social platforms, with a focus on creators, publishers, and federated servers.
The Interledger Foundation has awarded Alliance of Digital Finance and Fintech Associations to be the first recipients of an Interledger Policy Activation Grant. This grant will enable them to lead a new global initiative to make Instant Payment Systems more inclusive and accessible to fintechs and non-banks.
The article introduces the BessPay Plugin, a tool that helps MSMEs in emerging economies receive fast, low-cost, cross-border payments in their local currency by integrating Interledger Open Payments with the Sharetribe platform. The project has progressed through technical development, pilot research, and partnerships, positioning BessPay as a promising solution for advancing financial inclusion and enabling broader participation in global digital commerce.
