The Block: Tribal Credit, Bitso and Stellar Development Foundation unveil cross-border payment tool in Mexico

San Francisco-based startup Tribal Credit is working with Latin American exchange Bitso and the Stellar Development Foundation to launch a new cross-border payment system for businesses in Mexico and the U.S.

The tool is aimed at making it cheaper and faster for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMBs) in Latin America to send payments to other countries including the U.S. Bitso is facilitating the conversion of Mexican pesos to the dollar-pegged USDC stablecoin.

"If a customer is holding onto 100,000 USDC in a certain entity in Mexico, then we will allow them to spend up to $100,000 in the Tribal platform to pay whoever they want to pay," Arvind Nimbalker, Global Head of Product of Tribal Credit told The Block in an interview. "So, it's enabling them to make payments in the real world by having access to these kinds of crypto assets."

Tribal announced it had completed a $34.3 million raise in April largely focused on Mexico, which is its largest market. It also provides services like corporate credit cards to smaller businesses and a platform for managing expenses.

The company has also expanded in Colombia, Peru and Chile, and looking at growing into Argentina and Brazil, Tribal's Chief Strategy Officer Mohamed Elkasstawi told The Block.