Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas Propel Fnality’s $95M Funding Round
Blockchain payments firm Fnality has successfully raised $95 million in a recent funding round led by banking giants Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas, gearing towards a global liquidity management network for new digital payment models and emerging tokenized asset markets.
Fnality, a London-based blockchain payment firm, has secured another $95 million in a funding round fronted by Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas. The funding round also saw the participation of DTCC, Euroclear, Nomura, and WisdomTree, along with a number of banks that previously backed Fnality in its 2019 round where it raised $63 million.
Among these banks were Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, Barclays, CIBC, Commerzbank, ING, Lloyds Banking Group, Nasdaq Ventures, State Street, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and UBS. The firm is planning to use this new capital to set up a 24-hour global liquidity management network for emerging digital payment models and tokenized asset markets.
Fnality was founded in 2019 as a UBS-led project aiming to create digital versions of fiat currencies for wholesale payments and transactions involving digital securities. It initially operated under the Utility Settlement Coin (USC) project, which aimed to tokenize fiat currencies like the US dollar and the euro on an Ethereum-based blockchain.
By 2020, however, the project faced delays in its bid for regulatory approval. Consequently, in April the following year, the Bank of England (BoE) announced that it would allow innovators to access central bank money through so-called omnibus accounts to support a broader range of payment systems. In response, Fnality declared via a blog post that it had applied for access.
The company ran its proof-of-concept, in February 2022, for issuing a tokenized security on the Ethereum blockchain, the payment part of the operation being handled by Fnality. The firm’s CEO, Rhomaios Ram, announced that the company was set to launch its payment system in October 2022 finally.
This new funding round sets the groundwork for the initiation of the Sterling Fnality Payment System in 2023, subject to approval by the Bank of England. Mathew McDermott, Goldman’s global head of digital assets, stated that Fnality’s blockchain tech application enables institutions to use central bank funds across various potential use cases. These include instantaneous, cross-border, cross-currency payments, collateral mobility, and security transactions.
Other global banking firms like JPMorgan have shown an active interest in blockchain and tokenization. In November, JPMorgan launched a new programmable payment feature on its JPM Coin platform, targeting institutional investors.
