Blue Star Capital plc (LON: BLU), the investing company with a focus on technology and its applications within media and gaming, has provided an update in respect of its investee company SatoshiPay Ltd.
Publishing vertical
The Company has announced that further, to its announcement on 31st January 2019, SatoshiPay has launched its first service with a product owned by globally operating German digital media publisher Axel Springer. The Tatorte website (tatorte24.de), a real-time map with police reports in Germany, went live with a prepaid subscription service powered by SatoshiPay’s payment technology and with free user credits supplied by the Stellar Development Foundation (“SDF”). The Tatorte soft launch took place on 23 November 2019 and a first article covering the promotion was published on Germany’s most visited website “bild.de”. According to the partnership agreement, SatoshiPay’s payment solution will be rolled out to other Axel Springer online properties should the pilot phase of Tatorte conclude successfully.
In addition, and further to the announcement made on 7 March 2019, SatoshiPay has very recently gone live with its micropayments solution with Der Aktionär (deraktionaer.de), a leading German financial news source, part of Börsenmedien AG an investor in SatoshiPay. The initial launch includes a paid report with an analysis of listed companies and a giveaway programme sponsored by the SDF. Der Aktionär is also the first website to feature SatoshiPay’s upgraded user interface design, dubbed “SatoshiPay 2.0”. Der Aktionär intends to add further paid content which can be purchased with SatoshiPay’s solution in the near future and it is expected that the solution will be rolled out to other digital outlets of Börsenmedien AG.
New Service Launch “SatoshiPay B2B”
As revealed at SatoshiPay’s 2019 Launch Event on 26 November 2019, SatoshiPay is introducing a new service called “SatoshiPay B2B”, allowing businesses around the world to conveniently execute instant cross-border payments of any amount. The launch of its B2B service marks SatoshiPay’s move into macro payments, serving a market with multi-trillion USD in annual revenue, by far the largest segment of the global payment market. SatoshiPay’s existing partnership network and technical platform, built for its publishing vertical and based on the Stellar distributed ledger network, will also be the foundation of its B2B service. Further product and partnership announcements will follow in the coming months.
Other Developments
Since its introduction in January 2019, SatoshiPay’s “Solar” application, a free open source wallet client software for the Stellar network, has been downloaded more than 20,000 times and is being used in 27 countries around the globe. Solar is available on all major mobile and desktop platforms and allows free Stellar account creation, fund transfers, Stellar network asset trading, multi-signature transfers and withdrawal to bank accounts, cash points or other blockchains connected to the Stellar network by open standards.
Finally, to reflect SatoshiPay’s expansion into areas beyond micropayments for content, the company announced its new mission statement “to connect the world through instant payments” at the company’s 2019 Launch Event on 26 November 2019. SatoshiPay’s instant transfers leverage open and transparent financial infrastructures, such as distributed ledger networks, to settle funds globally within seconds, therefore, giving businesses and individuals the opportunity to interact with each other across borders in a frictionless way.
Meinhard Benn, Founder and CEO of SatoshiPay said:
“We are extremely happy with our progress in 2019 and excited to finally go public with projects we have been working on throughout the year. As of today, our strategic partners Axel Springer and Börsenmedien are live with our payment technology. These two launches mark the next big step in SatoshiPay’s growth story – a push into the mainstream. We are looking forward to extending these projects to additional paid content offerings of our partners and the development of new partnerships inspired by these excellent applications of our technology.”
“With Solar, our open source blockchain wallet for the Stellar network, and our new B2B cross-border instant payments service, we are closing gaps in the global financial ecosystem. We aim to empower individuals and businesses around the planet, with a focus on underbanked regions – using next generation financial infrastructure and therefore follow our mission to connect the world through instant payments.”
Tony Fabrizi, CEO of Blue Star Capital said:
“We are pleased to provide today’s update on progress at SatoshiPay. The launches with publishing assets of Axel Springer and Börsenmedien should provide the foundations for further and faster growth within the publishing vertical while the new launch within the B2B payments space represents an important diversification”.
