Fnality, the international consortium of global banks focused on building a blockchain-based payment system to support the adoption of tokenised assets and marketplaces, has raised £77.7 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas.
The new equity will further Fnality’s goal of establishing a global liquidity management ecosystem for new digital payment models in both wholesale financial markets and emerging tokenised asset markets.
The lead investors were joined in the round by DTCC, Euroclear, Nomura and WisdomTree. There were also additional investments from Series A investors Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, Barclays, CIBC, Commerzbank, ING, Lloyds Banking Group, Nasdaq Ventures, State Street, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and UBS.
The culmination of this latest round brings Fnality’s total capital raised to £132.7m as it readies for the commencement of initial Sterling Fnality Payment System (£FnPS) operations in 2023, subject to regulatory approval
Founded in 2019, Fnality is developing a series of regulated, DLT-based wholesale payment systems in key jurisdictions, each overseen by its home central bank, with the UK penciled in as the first market to go live. In each Fnality Payment System (FnPS), participants use settlement balances in an account directly at the central bank to make wholesale payments in real-time.
Rhomaios Ram, CEO of Fnality International, comments: “Our Series B funding round represents the financial sector’s desire for a central bank money backed blockchain-based settlement solution that bridges the gap between traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralised finance (DeFi) in wholesale markets. Each Fnality Payment System utilises DLT to provide a 24/7 payment rail with the ability to reduce settlement cycles to real-time, while significantly improving intraday liquidity management and marking significant innovation in the speed, functionality, and resilience of wholesale payments.”
Mathew McDermott, global head of digital assets at Goldman Sachs, says: “Fnality’s solution is a key enabler for the digital asset ecosystem. Fnality’s application of blockchain technology offers a resilient way for institutions to use central bank funds across a wide set of potential use cases, including instantaneous, cross-border, cross-currency payments, collateral mobility, and security transactions. We are pleased with our investment and are looking forward to the transformative impact Fnality brings.”