Fnality International, a fintech startup which provides digital payment infrastructure, has secured £77.7m in a Series B round led by Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas.
Founded in 2019, Fnality is looking to build tokenised versions of currencies backed by funds held in central banks. Among the intended benefits of Fnality’s blockchain-based system is the simplification of cross-currency payments.
Following the raise, London-based Fnality is seeking regulatory sign-off of its sterling payment system before the end of the year.
Rhomaios Ram, CEO of Fnality International, said: “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.”
The Fnality International Series B will fund its continued work on its “global liquidity management ecosystem” that will support “new digital payment models” in the wholesale financial markets as well as emerging tokenised asset markets.
Investment also came from investors such as Banco Santander, Barclays, CIBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Nasdaq Ventures and UBS, with its total funding now standing at £132.7m.
Mathew McDermott, global head of digital assets at Goldman Sachs, said: “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.”
A recent report by Lloyds Bank revealed that crypto scams were up by 23% this year.