Hello, and welcome to today's edition of Founders International, where we give you the update on startups and technology from outside of the US.

Here's what we have in store for you today:1. Crypto spending and cash back is coming to Argentina2. Getting loans based on your personal clout for your business?3. This founder has an interesting post on India's EV future

Read time: 3 minutes

Ripio card, associated with Visa, launches in Argentina

One very much underreported story in the US is that of the insane inflation going on in Argentina. You thought 7% inflation is bad (it still really is), take a look at this.

This is a five year view comparing the value of the US dollar, to the Argentine Peso. Back in 2018, the exchange was about 1 dollar to 20 Argentine pesos. Well, it has declined almost 10x in value, sitting at 191.6 pesos as you can see in the graph above, today.

Why does this matter? This has been causing many Argentinians to scramble and find other things to do with their money, other places to hold their money, etc. So, yes, crypto actually had value to people, and still really do.

Enter Ripio. Ripio, the cryptoactive company that operates in Argentina and Brazil, started its new Visa card for online payments in Argentina recently, calling it the Ripio card.

This gives a new way for the crypto-minded Argentinians to spend some of their money they have been holding their, while getting 3% cash back in USDC (stablecoin) automatically directly to their crypto wallets.

According to Visa, "1 in 4 young people from Generation Z (in Argentina) choose crypto as an investment, so it is very positive that a solution like this comes as an option for them and for different types of consumers."

This offer is only going until March 31st of this year, and to access it the users must download the Ripio app.

This is one small step for man, and one, giant leap for crypto actually finding a use case.

Getting loans based on your personal clout for your business?

Have you ever heard of the saying, "I know you're good for it"? You know, probably when a friend asks for some money, you don't say "Oh I need that back right now." You probably think "I know he'll Venmo me back eventually," basically saying you know he's got it, and he will get it back to me.

Well, there is now a business being built on that notion exactly.

Today's company of the day is giving you loans based on your social clout, called Moni.

In a survey of small-to-medium enterprises back in 2020 by PwC, they found that in Nigeria, "22% of businesses surveyed reported that obtaining financing for their business was the most pressing challenge they faced. This outweighed finding customers (16%) and infrastructure deficit (15%)."

Now, to further that issue, we are talking about a country where there aren't even solid addresses and it can be hard to even find streets, and a lot of people not properly identified with the country to be able to apply for loan, you can see why lending may be difficult.

Well, Moni is trying to use social proof and trust as a way to give out small loans to businesses. You can sign up for their app, join a "cluster" as they call it, and then you are able to get a loan at the trust of other people in your same cluster.

Why can this be more powerful than a bank loan? When you pay back your cluster, you are paying back the cluster as a whole. One person isn't made whole before another. So, fail to pay back a loan, and now you have a whole group of people asking you for their money back. Not just one entity (the bank).

They are also incentivizing good behavior, where if you refer someone to Moni and they pay back on time, you get a commission for that.

These are also people you are acquainted with, and have built up trust with, which most people would not want to ruin. I don't know about you, but I feel bad not paying back one friend on time. Make it like 12 friends now, I may darn near have a panic attack.

It's an interesting idea, and an interesting business. They have reportedly already served 10,000 business proving this model can work, it will just be yet to be seen if it can reach massive scale.

Founder of the day

Aviral Bhatnagar, co-founder of a VC firm based in India is our founder of the day. Short and sweet, he put out an interesting and quick post on how India is well poised to dominate the EV market for a few different reasons.

His LinkedIn post is a quick read, but the whole post can be found here where he goes more in depth for the reasoning this may not be just a fad.

And that's all for today, if you want to get more follow us @Founders_Intl, or respond to this email. Yes, we respond to all emails, including yours. Try us.

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💯 Freaking sick dude🤷‍♂️ Meh, do better next time😑 Bruh, I might unsubscribe after reading that