Ripple Invests in ZILO and Licuido to Expand Tokenized Assets

Highlights: 

• Ripple has invested in two financial technology firms as part of ongoing efforts to expand its payment services. 
• The two companies include ZILO, which specializes in regulated transfers, and Licuido, which focuses on issuing digital assets.
• The investments aim to tackle challenges such as liquidity problems, settlement delays, and collateral-related constraints.

Cross-border payment firm Ripple has announced new investments in two financial technology companies, ZILO and Licuido. The company announced the strategic move in a press release on Monday as part of its ongoing efforts to build services for large financial institutions on the XRP Ledger (XRPL). According to the publication, ZILO and Licuido are already working with Ripple. 

ZILO focuses on regulated transfer agency technology, while Licuido provides tools for issuing digital assets and moving collateral within regulated financial markets. Their technologies will be integrated into Ripple’s payment system. This will make it easier for institutions to issue, manage, transfer, and use tokenized financial assets on the XRPL.

Deepening our push into capital markets, we are investing in ZILO and Licuido to add regulated transfer agency, issuance and collateral mobility to our capital markets infrastructure built on the XRPL. This comes on the heels of Aviva Investors tokenising its US Dollar Liquidity…

— Ripple (@Ripple) August 3, 2026

How Ripple Aims to Tackle Payment and Settlement Challenges

The cross-border payment platform strongly believes that many parts of today’s financial markets depend on old systems that are gradually becoming obsolete and inefficient. It also highlighted challenges that its new investments aim to address.

Ripple stated:

“Issuers, investors and liquidity providers all face the same constraints: collateral that sits idle instead of being put to work, settlement that takes longer than it should, and no easy way to unlock liquidity and mobilize collateral securely.”

To address these challenges, Ripple said it is designing a platform that will integrate several payment services into a single entity. The new setup will allow institutions to issue cryptocurrencies for different purposes. These include token issuance, custody services, collateral utility, multi-currency-supported investments and instant trade settlement. 

Ripple’s stablecoin, RLUSD, will serve as the payment asset during these transactions. In addition, the XRPL will handle the transfer of ownership. The payment firm believes this will reduce settlement risk, while allowing institutions to complete transactions at any time.

Top Executives React as Ripple Invests in Financial Technology Firms

Nigel Khakoo, Ripple’s Senior Vice President of Trading and Markets, downplayed the importance of simply turning assets into digital tokens. He explained that real benefit comes when these assets can be traded immediately or used as collateral for lending, borrowing, or margin requirements. 

He added:

“Our partnerships with Aviva Investors, Franklin Templeton and DBS demonstrate how asset managers are focused on deploying tokenized fund structures at scale.” 

Phil Goffin, ZILO’s founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), said more investment funds are beginning to move into blockchain. This has increased the demand for systems that can manage tokenized share classes without increasing operational risk. He added that Ripple’s investment will help ZILO to continue building these services for its clients.

Brian Lynch, the CEO and Co-Founder of Licuido, shared similar thoughts with Ripple’s Vice President. He noted that tokenization alone does not solve liquidity problems. According to Lynch, institutions also need systems that allow tokenized assets to move easily within regulated markets. 

Last month, Crypto2Community reported that Ripple has backed a UK strategy which aims to expand tokenized wholesale financial markets beyond conventional pilot projects into live financial markets. According to the publication, HM Treasury appointed Chris Woolard as Wholesale Digital Markets Champion in April to develop the strategy. 

Onchain funds, bonds and repo aren't experiments. They're already happening, delivering onchain financial instruments that are cheaper, better and faster than their legacy equivalents.

The UK has the capital markets depth and regulatory credibility to be a global leader in… pic.twitter.com/ELEP4x9UGL

— Ripple (@Ripple) July 13, 2026