Blockchain-based wholesale payments firm Fnality raised $95.09 million in its second round of funding.
What Happened: The funding is backed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
The U.K.-based payments firm is awaiting the Bank of England's approval to commence operations.
Combined with the first whip-round of $63.2 million in June 2019, Fnality's total capital stands at $158 million. It is set to commence the Sterling Fnality Payment System operations in 2023 post-regulatory approval.
Founded in 2019, Fnality was a UBS-led blockchain project looking to develop digital versions of major currencies for wholesale payments and transactions involving digital securities. It initially was formed as a Utility Settlement Coin (USC) project.
Why It Matters: "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," Goldman's Global Head of Digital Assets Matthew McDermott commented, as cited by Reuters.
The funding will be used to set up an all-time available global liquidity management network for new digital payment models in wholesale financial markets and emerging tokenized asset markets.
The goal of the firm is to reduce the gap between mainstream and digital finance which will reduce the time and cost of settling, managing collateral and making payments for financial market transactions.
