Fnality International Ltd., which is developing a blockchain-based wholesale payment system, raised £77.7 million ($95.2 million) in a funding round led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and BNP Paribas SA.
Other investors in the London-based company’s round also include the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp., Euroclear, Nomura Holdings Inc. and Wisdom Tree Inc., Fnality Chief Executive Officer Rhomaios Ram said in an interview. He declined to say what the investment values Fnality at.
The investment comes more than four years after Fnality’s latest funding round, which raised £55m in June 2019 from backers including UBS Group AG, Banco Santander SA and Barclays Plc. Fnality plans to use the proceeds to invest in the operations and functionality of the British pound-based version of its system, Ram said.
Large banks like JPMorgan Chase & Co. have this year launched a slew of new initiatives that rely on distributed-ledger technology to streamline existing tasks.
Read More: JPMorgan Lets Clients Program, Automate Payments With Blockchain
Fnality was founded in 2019 but originated in a UBS-led blockchain project. It is building digital versions of major currencies to be used in wholesale payments and transactions involving digital securities. Like many similar startups, it has taken longer than expected to get products to market. However, Ram said the company expects to begin initial operations of its Sterling payment system by year-end, subject to final regulatory approval.
“It was not easy to get this round closed, but the fact they [the investors] put money is pretty significant,” Ram said. “It feels like there are small pockets of optimism emerging and this is an indication of that.”
