Fnality's $136M Raise Aims to Bridge TradFi and DeFi with Real-Time Payments

Fnality International has completed a $136 million Series C funding round, led by Temasek, Bank of America, Citi, KBC Group, and WisdomTree, with participation from existing investors including Goldman Sachs, UBS, and Barclays. This brings the firm’s total capital raised to over $231 million, combining this latest round with a $95 million Series B round in 2023 led by Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas. The funding aims to accelerate the expansion of Fnality’s blockchain-based wholesale payment systems, including the development of systems for the U.S. dollar and euro markets, pending regulatory approvals from the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank. The capital will also support the enhancement of liquidity management tools and the settlement of tokenized assets such as securities and stablecoins.

The company’s flagship system, the Sterling Fnality Payment System (£FnPS), launched in 2025 as the first regulated distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based payment system in the world. It enables real-time, atomic settlements using central bank money and has attracted early adopters like Lloyds Banking Group, Banco Santander, and UBS. The £FnPS is designed to reduce settlement cycles from days to seconds, offering 24/7 availability and intraday liquidity optimization. By leveraging DLT, Fnality claims to eliminate credit and settlement risks associated with traditional systems, as transactions are executed directly on central bank reserves without intermediaries.

The Series C round underscores growing institutional interest in tokenized finance and blockchain infrastructure for wholesale markets. Investors, including WisdomTree and Citi, emphasized the platform’s potential to bridge traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi) by enabling programmable money features such as “earmarking,” which allows institutions to reserve funds for specific transactions. Fnality’s CEO Michelle Neal stated the funding marks progress toward a “hybrid future of global finance,” where real-time cross-border payments, tokenized securities settlement, and collateral management can be executed seamlessly.

The company’s expansion plans align with broader trends in financial infrastructure modernization. Fnality’s systems are designed to support real-time delivery-versus-payment for digital securities and payment-versus-payment for foreign exchange, reducing intermediaries and improving capital efficiency for banks. For example, repo trades that typically take a day to settle could close instantly, freeing up liquidity for other transactions. The firm’s technology has already demonstrated use cases such as real-time cross-border FX swaps and tokenized repo transactions, positioning it to compete with legacy systems like SWIFT.

Industry leaders have highlighted Fnality’s role in addressing inefficiencies in wholesale payments. Jonathan Steinberg, CEO of WisdomTree, described the platform as a “critical foundation” for tokenized finance, while Citi’s Deepak Mehra noted its alignment with the bank’s strategy to build interoperable payment systems for digital assets. Fnality’s CEO Rhomaios Ram emphasized that the funding reflects the sector’s demand for a central bank money-backed DLT solution to bridge TradFi and DeFi ecosystems.

Source: [1] Fnality Raises $136M to Expand Blockchain Payment Systems (https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/09/23/fnality-raises-usd136m-to-expand-blockchain-payment-systems-for-banks) [2] Fnality Raises $136M to Expand Blockchain Payment Network (https://cointelegraph.com/news/fnality-raises-136m-to-expand-blockchain-payment-network) [3] Fnality launches DLT wholesale payment system in … (https://www.ledgerinsights.com/fnality-launch-dlt-wholesale-payment-system-in-uk/) [4] UK fintech Fnality raises €89M from Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, … (https://moneylowdown.com/currencies/uk-fintech-fnality-raises-e89m-from-goldman-sachs-bnp-paribas-others-know-more/) [6] Goldman Sachs-backed Fnality raises $136M to replace SWIFT … (https://techfundingnews.com/fnality-raises-136m-to-disrupt-wholesale-payments-blockchain)