Fnality raises £77.7 million in Series B funding 14 November 2023UK Reporter: Bob Currie
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Finality has completed a £77.7 million Series B funding round, which was led by Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas with involvement from Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), Euroclear, Nomura, WisdomTree and a number of other investors.
The digital payments fintech aims to use this latest financial injection to continue development of, what it suggests, will be the world’s first global liquidity management ecosystem that empowers new digital payment models in both wholesale financial markets and emerging tokenised asset markets.
This Series B funding round brings the total capital raised by Fnality to £132.7 million, according to the company, as it prepares for the release of initial Sterling Fnality Payment System (£FnPS) operations in 2023 when this has been granted the necessary regulatory approvals.
Fnality indicates that it has already completed proofs of concept (PoCs) demonstrating real-time settlement of tokenised securities, real-time cross-border FX swap transactions, and real-time repo trades, utilising its distributed ledger technology-based platform.
Commenting on the funding round, Rhomaios Ram, CEO of Fnality International, says: "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, comments: “Fnality’s solution is a key enabler for the digital asset ecosystem and the company is well-positioned to be at the forefront of payment innovations and institutional adoption of DLT.
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.”
Frank La Salla, DTCC’s CEO and president, adds: “As the worlds of TradFi and DeFi converge, DTCC is committed to partnering with industry participants, regulators and other stakeholders to help introduce the standards and governance needed to accelerate ecosystem growth while ensuring the highest levels of market safety and stability.
"Our investment in Fnality builds upon our agreement to acquire Securrency and will help foster new digital payment rails that will be essential for establishing a robust digital infrastructure, enabling interoperability and driving adoption of digital assets.”
BNP Paribas’ head of Corporate and Institutional Banking for Global Markets Olivier Osty, adds: “Collaborating with innovative companies is at the core of BNP Paribas Global Markets’ strategy and is a key pillar in remaining a meaningful partner to our clients. BNP Paribas’ investment in Fnality illustrates the bank’s continued commitment to exploring and supporting innovative solutions within the banking industry.”
In addition to the companies named above, the latest funding round also includes further investment 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.
In December 2022, Fnality worked with HQLAx, alongside Banco Santander, Goldman Sachs and UBS, to execute the first cross-blockchain repo swap pilot, across R3 Corda and Enterprise Ethereum, which continues to lay the foundations for intraday transaction settlement.
In October 2022, Fnality and Finteum announced they had completed a PoC for the first cross-blockchain FX settlement transaction. This settled GBP and USD payments across Finteum’s R3 Corda-based platform and two Fnality payment systems utilising Enterprise Ethereum.
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