Alta, a financial infrastructure company, has raised US$47.5 million in a Series A round led by Index Ventures.
The round lifts its total funding to US$80 million and backs its development of blockchain infrastructure designed around the privacy and compliance requirements of regulated financial institutions.
GV (Google Ventures), Blackbird Ventures, Square Peg and Capital 49 joined the round, which follows US$32.5 million in earlier seed financing.
Alta said it will use the capital to develop its infrastructure, expand its institutional partnerships and global financial connectivity, and grow its engineering and compliance teams.
Why Alta is building blockchain infrastructure for financial institutions
Alta said existing blockchains do not meet the privacy and compliance requirements of global financial institutions.
The company is building infrastructure to support transactions across different assets, blockchain networks and jurisdictions. It also aims to meet the operational requirements of regulated financial institutions.
“Existing blockchains aren’t designed for the privacy and compliance requirements of global financial institutions,”
said Loong Wang, Co-founder and CEO of Alta.
“We’re taking a fundamentally different approach, building privacy, programmable compliance, and identity and authorisation directly into the blockchain.”
The technology is built on a blockchain architecture using recursive zero-knowledge cryptography.
It allows institutions to keep balances, transactions, identities and compliance policies private while verifying that transactions meet the required rules.
Alta targets idle cash in prefunded accounts
Alta’s first product will focus on helping businesses manage liquidity more efficiently and reduce the capital tied up in prefunded accounts.
The company estimates that businesses hold about US$4 trillion in prefunded accounts globally.
Built on tokenised assets, the product will support just-in-time funding, more efficient foreign exchange and the ability for businesses to move instantly in and out of yield-bearing tokenised assets, allowing them to earn interest on otherwise idle capital.
Airwallex builds on Alta’s blockchain
Airwallex has chosen to build on Alta, connecting its global payments infrastructure with the blockchain.
The collaboration will support stablecoin-based pay-ins and pay-outs. It will also connect to local fiat payment networks across 200 countries and 90 currencies.
Jack Zhang, Co-founder of Alta and Co-founder and CEO of Airwallex, said stablecoins are becoming an important settlement mechanism as agentic banking and programmable payments develop.
“Financial institutions need blockchain infrastructure that is private, neutral, regulated, and connected to global fiat rails,”
he said.
Alta aims to provide neutral infrastructure for banks, payment providers and other financial institutions to build on.
Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Singapore, based on image by muhagraph via Magnific
