Fnality raises $95 million in round led by Goldman, BNP Paribas

Fnality, the London-based blockchain payments firm, raised another $95 million in a round led by Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas.

DTCC, Euroclear, Nomura and WisdomTree also participated in the round, alongside some of a number of the banks that backed Fnality when it raised $63 million in 2019, according to multiple reports. Those banks include Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, Barclays, CIBC, Commerzbank, ING, Lloyds Banking Group, Nasdaq Ventures, State Street, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and UBS. Fnality did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The news confirms a September 2022 report from The Block, which revealed that Fnality had hired Broadhaven Capital Partners in pursuit of a Series B round.

The Fnality timeline

Fnality creates tokenized versions of fiat currency backed by cash held at central banks.

It first made headlines as a consortium of banks — spearheaded by UBS — focused on how to use blockchain technology and tokenized assets to settle trades. At that time, the initiative was known as Utility Settlement Coin (USC).

By September 2020, the project had faced delays in its bid for regulatory approval.

The following year, in April, the Bank of England (BoE) announced it would allow innovators to access central bank money through so-called omnibus accounts, in order to “support a greater range of payment systems.” Fnality quickly said in a blog post that it had applied for access.

In February 2022, the firm ran a proof-of-concept for issuing a tokenized security on Ethereum, with Fnality handling the payment part of the process. Fnality’s CEO Rhomaios Ram, who previously spent over 19 years at Deutsche Bank, said at the time that the firm was on track to finally launch its payment system in October 2022.

Source : The Block by Ryan Weeks / November 14, 2023