- Our newest report in partnership with W.K. Kellogg Foundation, ‘Building a More Equitable Web3’, shows through case studies that despite challenges, Web3 innovation draws a path forward for an equitable industry ecosystem.
- Félix uses blockchain payment rails to simplify and reduce the cost of sending remittances. It helps immigrant communities in the U.S. support their families in Latin America through a familiar text message-based platform.
- Patientory empowers patients by enabling them to securely store and manage their health data on a decentralized platform. Patients can seamlessly coordinate care and monetize their data if they choose.
- EMTECH increases financial inclusion by providing central banks with the infrastructure to compliantly develop CBDCs. This expands access to financial tools for unbanked and underbanked communities.
- Read our report in full here.
In Web3, founders from historically underrepresented backgrounds are at the forefront of building solutions that address the unique needs of their communities. Black and Latino builders we spoke with for our report are building innovative companies that address real market needs – needs that may have gone historically unrecognized by investors and other builders. These builders bring nuanced insights and distinctive approaches that others might overlook, unlocking opportunities for growth in sectors like fintech, healthcare, and digital currencies.
Despite this opportunity, Black and Latino founders continue to face significant barriers in accessing the capital and networks needed to thrive. As our analysis of Crunchbase data finds, in 2022, Black founders collectively secured only 0.5% of the $11.9 billion raised by Web3 startups, while Latino founders secured 0% – a significant decline from the prior year. Volatility and uncertainty in the market have further compounded these inequities; while overall VC investments dropped by 36% in 2022, investments for Black-led businesses saw an even steeper drop of 45%, according to Crunchbase data. This represents the largest year-over-year decrease in funding Black entrepreneurs have experienced in the past decade.
Greater participation in shaping the industry will ensure the creation of products and services that address the needs of a greater number of people. Our report makes recommendations for policy and industry actions that can shape a Web3 ecosystem that is more accessible and empowering to all. Three case studies from our recent report – Patientory, EMTECH, and Félix – exemplify the ingenuity and impact that should be celebrated and supported in Web3.
Félix
Globally, the remittance market is projected to grow from $626 billion in 2022 to nearly $1 trillion by 2026. Despite this growth potential, remittances are largely still a difficult or expensive process, requiring people to pay transaction fees that can represent high percentages of totals sent; wait several days while transactions settle; and in some cases, send or receive remittances in physical cash, which can present safety concerns. Blockchain enables significant improvements in the efficiency and affordability of cross-border value transfer, lowering the cost by as much as 97 percent according to an estimate by Coinbase.
Félix aims to reduce the costs and frictions associated with transferring value to migrants’ home countries and families, levering USD Coin (USDC) stablecoins through blockchain payment network Stellar. People using Félix do not directly interact with any crypto products. Instead, Félix is built on the Whatsapp platform, using the text message interface familiar to hundreds of millions of users in the United States and across Latin America to initiate transfers. Félix handles the on/off ramp and exchange of fiat into stablecoins, and then into the currency of the recipients’ destinations, all in the background. Payments are transacted instantaneously and at a low, fixed cost, a significant improvement over legacy providers.
Félix is growing rapidly, and has facilitated hundreds of millions of dollars in transfers to date. Over the next year, the Félix team plans to grow their reach in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia before continuing to expand into Central America.
Patientory
Patient health data exists largely in siloed data management systems. This makes it difficult for patients to navigate between systems to manage their health records. Patientory is a platform within which patients securely store their personal health data on a HIPAA-compliant blockchain. It simultaneously addresses the costs and fragmentation of health data systems, challenges which often disproportionately affect communities with lower socioeconomic standing.
Patientory facilitates the accessibility of these data through a single blockchain-enabled platform, where patients can retain ownership and rights over their information. This centralization allows patients to securely store their personal medical information, coordinate care plans across networks, and share data with multiple healthcare providers.
Patients connect to Patientory via a wallet, which both serves as a form of identification and enables them to monetize their health data, if they choose. With access to this user-monetized health data, enterprises may generate important insights and analyses to understand disease patterns, identify trends, accelerate drug discovery, or advance medical technologies. While in Beta, the clinical trial tracker attracted more than 2,000 participants for pre-screening and geographical matching of trials.
EMTECH
As the world becomes increasingly digitized, many financial services companies are developing alternatives to physical cash in the form of digital currencies. CBDCs offer the convenience of digitized cash with the reassuring status of legal tender and backing by the same well-known banks that back paper cash. 130 countries—accounting for 98% of the global GDP—are currently exploring CBDC technology with 64 in the advanced stages of exploration. EMTECH operates from a vision that CBDCs 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.
EMTECH provides CBDC digital infrastructure for central banks and fintech companies to test and develop their compliance and explore their CBDC capabilities. It offers a regulatory sandbox API platform, a software application that streamlines the regulatory application process, and facilitates data reporting. As a unique combination of regtech and fintech, EMTECH serves as the link between central banks and end users, working to increase the number of distribution channels through which users can access digital cash. As of August 2023, EMTECH was working with six central banks, all of which should be fully onboarded in 2024.
These stories are not just about the individuals or companies; they represent a broader movement toward a more diverse and inclusive tech ecosystem. Stay tuned as we explore how diversity in Web3 drives innovation and what it will take to ensure equitable access to this transformative technology.
Learn more about the report’s case studies and other projects creating impact via our Impact Base:
