Open-source payments services provider Celo has reportedly disclosed the names of firms that will receive financial support, in its first round of development grant. 

Specifically, Celo has previously revealed a grant, equivalent to $700,000, particularly to support 13 firms, which are looking to develop upon the foundation provided by the network, consequently help grow Celo’s current platform, or contribute to the Celo community. 

The firms eligible for the grant “provide building blocks to help strengthen the Celo protocol, provide more access to the financially underserved, and develop programs to help educate and nurture the Celo community.” 

The recipients will need to design their projects and services upon Celo, including eSolidar – a charity marketplace platform, Beam & Co – online platform for generating e-gift cards in the Philippines, Brazil-based, crypto-enabled platform small paid tasks, LoveCrypto, playment service provider Pay with Mon, along with bill remittance platform SaldoMX.

The Blockchain for Social Impact Coalition – a non-profit specialised in generating Ether and blockchain-powered solution to provide assistance for the UN’ Sustainable Development Goals – is also among the recipient list. 

Firms who are working on “building blocks to strengthen and scale the Celo platform” made the largest group of recipient of the grant – including Chorus One, Forbole, Gitcoin, Stake.fish, Figment, Gauntlet and Chainsafe.

The grant is an initiative to encourage the participation of different firms, in helping to build validator tools, on and off-ramps for payments and point-of-sale systems, smart contracts, and community education, as well as  innovative new use cases for the platform.