Stellar Philippines Approves $95,000 in Grants for 19 Local Tech Projects

Stellar Philippines has approved $95,000 in grant capital across 19 domestic development teams building financial tools, developer infrastructure and artificial intelligence applications on the Stellar network.

The funding is disbursed through the Stellar Instawards program, which awards a fixed allocation of $5,000 per project contingent upon meeting technical milestones during an individual 30-day development sprint. A first cohort of nine teams concluded their sprints and presented working software on Oct. 8, while 10 remaining teams are completing their respective milestones ahead of a second showcase.

The initial cohort focused on user safety, automated finance, artificial intelligence and community savings mechanisms.

Among consumer payment applications, Bullet demonstrated a transfer platform that replaces alphanumeric wallet addresses with social media handles, reporting 82 registered users during its presentation. Salapi showcased on-chain crowdfunding and rotating savings pools modeled after Philippine paluwagan systems, demonstrating a prototype deployed for a fishing community in Cebu. PrimeLendRow presented a peer-to-peer lending protocol featuring identity verification and collateral tracking interfaces. (Read More: Crypto in the Philippines: Complete Guide)

Two projects addressed integration between software agents and decentralized networks. Centient developed an evaluation portal where contributors receive Stellar-based USD Coin (USDC) payments for training and ranking artificial intelligence outputs. Orizon Agents presented an orchestration framework that assigns tasks to autonomous software agents and settles machine-to-machine transactions on testnet. (Read More: Crypto Wallets in the Philippines)

Infrastructure and security software accounted for the remainder of the first cohort. Lantern built a transaction inspection tool, an on-chain scam registry and automated wallet warnings to intercept fraudulent transactions before signing. Paiflow launched a drag-and-drop visual interface allowing non-engineers to construct programmable payment flows without writing smart contracts. Developer platform Velo released a fee-bump relay service and a gas policy engine designed to let applications sponsor user transaction costs. Good Game Guild completed smart contracts for automated esports prize pool escrows and dispute refunds.

The upcoming second cohort of 10 projects is developing tools targeting offline connectivity, local business payments and labor markets:

• OmniPay and Pijin: Independent SMS-based transaction relayers that permit users to execute Stellar transfers without mobile internet connections.
• HeyPay: A payment application bridging cryptocurrency balances to merchant point-of-sale terminals using the national QR Ph standard.
• Noir: A payment protocol utilizing near-field communication (NFC) hardware for tap-to-pay transactions.
• Sweldo: An automated payroll management system that locks disbursement liquidity ahead of scheduled paydays.
• Highrable and GigPay: Independent freelance platforms using milestone-based smart contracts and structured escrow to manage contractor payouts.
• TyFi: An agricultural risk product combining passkey-based wallet authentication with parametric typhoon relief financing for farmers.
• Doqtri: A document verification platform tracking version authenticity on-chain.
• BlkFndr: A directory and resource-matching network for early-stage startup founders.

The Instawards initiative follows a series of local developer outreach programs organized by Stellar in Manila, including a university hackathon co-hosted with Rise In and developer bootcamps during Philippine Blockchain Week. The network’s prior commercial footprint in the country has centered on low-cost cross-border remittance corridors through partners including Cebuana Lhuillier and Coins.ph. (Read More: Stellar Philippines and Rise In Conclude ‘Build the Future of Finance’ Hackathon in Manila)

Disclosure: AI is used to assist in developing this article.

This article is published on BitPinas: Stellar Philippines Approves $95,000 in Grants for 19 Local Tech Projects

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