LightNet and Interstellar announced a partnership leveraging Stellar to enable fast, low-cost remittances across Asia Pacific. Backed by major conglomerates including CP Group and Seven Bank, the network connects 40,000+ convenience stores and 5 million agents to serve unbanked populations and reduce remittance costs from 6% to under 1%.
At Meridian 2020, LightNet CEO Beam Aruna and Interstellar CEO Mike Kennedy discussed their strategic partnership to revolutionize cross-border payments in Southeast Asia using the Stellar blockchain. LightNet, backed by major Asian conglomerates like CP Group, Seven Bank, Hanwha, and UOB Bank, operates a network of over 40,000 convenience stores and 5 million agents across the region. The partnership aims to address the remittance market where migrant workers currently pay up to 10% in fees. By leveraging Stellar's instant settlement capabilities and the Velo protocol as a bridge asset, they eliminate multiple correspondent banks and SWIFT routing, reducing transaction costs to under 1% and settlement time from 3-4 days to under an hour. The initiative targets financial inclusion for Southeast Asia's 700 million population, 70% of whom are unbanked or underbanked, while enabling interoperability across cash-in-cash-out networks, digital banks, and cryptocurrency platforms. Live transactions between South Korea and Thailand had already begun at the time of the panel.
