Open Money Initiative

What Open Money Initiative does

Open Money Initiative is a non-profit research organization founded in 2018 that studies how people use money in closed economies and collapsing monetary systems. Its initial geographic focus is Venezuela, where citizens face inability to exchange or transfer money abroad, violent crackdowns on merchants setting their own prices, and hyperinflation. The organization operates on the thesis that access to a free and open financial system is a human right, and seeks to surface the human experiences that are typically absent from macro monetary data.

The organization conducts its work through a design-led, qualitative methodology built around ethnographic interviews and longitudinal field studies. Outputs are published openly via its website (openmoneyinitiative.org), a Medium publication (@openmoneyinitiative), and a Twitter account (@makeopenmoney), and are intended to inform the public, researchers, policymakers, and unnamed partner organizations working on financial access in closed economies. The entity is co-founded by Jill Carlson.

Open Money Initiative does not sell products or services and has no disclosed pricing, customers, or commercial revenue streams. It is funded by grant support and "generous" contributions from unnamed backers, operates with 1–10 employees, and distributes all research findings publicly rather than through commercial channels. There are no disclosed funding rounds, no parent organization, no subsidiaries, and no regulatory filings; the entity is structured as an independent private non-profit.

Name

Open Money Initiative

Website

https://openmoneyinitiative.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2018

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Open Money Initiative is a non-profit research organization, founded in 2018, that conducts qualitative field research on money usage in closed and collapsing monetary systems, initially focused on Venezuela, and publishes findings publicly.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Financial Research

NAICS

Grantmaking and Giving Services (81321)

SIC

International Affairs (9721)

akta.pro primary industry

Grantmaking & Philanthropic Funds (Institutional Donors) (BPADAOAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

Open Finance Expansion (investments, pensions, insurance, utilities data) (FSAGACAK)

Keywords

• Qualitative research
• Monetary systems research
• Financial inclusion research
• Ethnographic fieldwork
• Closed economy studies

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Grant funding: The organization operates on grant funding and generous support from backers, focusing on research about money usage in closed economies and collapsing monetary systems. Initial focus is on Venezuela.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Open Money Initiative is a non-profit research organization that conducts qualitative, design-led field research on how people use money in closed economies and collapsing monetary systems, with an initial focus on Venezuela. It gathers insights through ethnographic interviews and longitudinal studies, then publishes findings publicly and shares them with partners to inspire products and services that expand financial access. The organization does not sell a commercial product or service and operates on grant funding.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Qualitative research on closed monetary systems

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Unnamed PartnersminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe organization mentions working with unnamed partners to derive inspiration for products and services based on their research findings. No specific partner names are disclosed on the website.

Recent moves3 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• Coin Center: Small non-profit research and advocacy organization focused on policy around open/crypto financial systems in the U.S. — closely mirrors OMI's small-team, research-led, public-interest model around open money.
• GiveDirectly: Non-profit operating cash-transfer and financial-inclusion programs in low-income and crisis-affected economies, with field research in contexts like Kenya and Venezuela. Comparable in combining grant funding with on-the-ground work in fragile monetary environments.
• Inter-American Dialogue: Policy research organization producing analysis on Latin American political and economic issues, including Venezuela. Comparable as a research entity whose outputs inform policymakers and product/service builders in the region OMI studies.

Broad incumbents

• Open Society Foundations: Large philanthropic grantmaking organization funding civil society, economic justice, and financial access initiatives worldwide — including in closed-economy contexts relevant to OMI. Comparable as an institutional donor/grantmaker, but at much larger scale and as a funder rather than researcher.
• Brookings Institution — Economic Studies: Large established think tank with a monetary policy and international finance research agenda. Comparable as a producer of policy-relevant monetary research, but at vastly larger scale and broader mandate than OMI.
• Atlantic Council Geoeconomics Center: Think tank program studying how economic and monetary statecraft shape global finance, including sanctions, dollar tools, and emerging-market currency stability. Comparable thematic focus on monetary-system access from a much larger institutional footprint.

Emerging players

• Bitcoin Foundation / Bitcoin Policy Institute: Non-profit policy and advocacy groups around open, permissionless money. Comparable in mission alignment with OMI's 'free and open financial system' framing, though focused on advocacy and policy rather than ethnography.
• Roosevelt Institute: Think tank producing economic policy research on monetary policy, inequality, and financial system reform. Comparable as a small-to-mid sized research entity publishing on monetary-system design, but with a U.S./domestic focus rather than closed-economy fieldwork.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat2 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/makeopenmoney
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/open-money-initiative

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Open Money Initiative