Talino Venture Studios, an award-winning global venture studio for sustainable innovation, and Chemonics International, a leading sustainable development firm, have launched and seed-funded Higala, the pioneer startup Inclusive Instant Payment System (IIPS) in the Philippines. As an IIPS, Higala will serve as a financial superhighway that will connect thrift banks, rural banks, and microfinance institutions that are currently excluded from payment networks because of high switching and on-ramp costs. Despite the presence of 400 rural banks in the Philippines, only a mere 18 are part of InstaPay. This highlights a significant challenge: the lack of interoperability among these banks. As a consequence, the full potential of financial inclusion remains largely untapped, depriving many Filipinos of the benefits that modern banking...