Linden Lab Payment Spinoff Tilia Acquired by Fintech Company Thunes; Second Life Staffer Promises No Additional Costs for SLers

Tilia, Linden Lab's spinoff company for processing virtual currency to real money payments in Second Life, Upland (more here), VRChat (more here), and other virtual worlds, was recently acquired by fintech company Thunes:

To accelerate its growth in the United States and its presence in the fast-expanding online gaming market, Thunes, a global cross-border payments company, agreed to buy Tilia, an all-in-one payments platform. Tilia is licensed in 48 U.S. states and territories and offers payment solutions (acceptance and pay-outs) for online games, virtual worlds, creator economies, and in-app purchases.

As part of the transaction, Thunes and Linden Research, Inc. (“Linden Lab”), the current majority owner of Tilia, have agreed to an exclusive five-year partnership in which, post closing, Thunes will provide payment processing and pay-outs to Linden Lab, leveraging Thunes’ global network – allowing gamers to pay, and to receive money real-time, in a more cost-efficient way and with increased transparency.

Emphasis mine, because while this announcement hasn't been mentioned anywhere on Second Life's social media channels, it's inevitably lead some SLer to worry if this means they'll be paying more to process their Linden Dollars.

A Linden Lab staffer says no:

"This is good news for Second Life residents and creators," someone on the company's social media team posted into a Reddit /SecondLife thread about the news. "More options without additional costs. We are having an open meeting on May 20 and can discuss in detail."

So stay tuned for May 20! If anything, this partnership could make payment processing faster and more seamless in many more parts of the world. 

Thunes is pretty interesting as a company, finding a large niche in the global financial system:

[T]he traditional banking system is letting customers down, he argues. Charging structures are often opaque, with customers facing a variety of hidden fees; instant transfers are difficult to secure; and there are no systems for acknowledging receipt. On this basis, Thunes believes it can compete with the Swift network that banks use to move money around the world.

Of the $50 trillion or so of transfers made via Swift each year, around $15 trillion is accounted for by the smaller transactions in which Thunes has specialised, he points out.

More on /SecondLife here!  

Comments

[Dakota Revolver]

I am actually surprised that Stripe wasn't interested in Tilla, so this is an interesting development in the fintech sector.

[sirhc desantis]

It is an interesting move. Fintech I know nothing about but quick check size-wise it makes sense. Double bonus - it has given the usual suspects over in 'the official forum' something else to kvetch about.