Alta raises $80m as banks demand private blockchains - FinTech Global
Alta, a financial infrastructure start-up, has secured $47.5m in Series A capital, bringing its total funding to $80m as it targets the estimated $4tn locked in prefunded accounts worldwide.
Index Ventures led the Series A round, joined by GV, Blackbird Ventures, Square Peg and Capital 49. This follows $32.5m raised in seed financing.
Alta’s technology uses a new blockchain design based on recursive zero-knowledge cryptography. This allows institutions to shield sensitive data like balances and identities while proving transactions comply with rules.
The company aims to remove friction in the financial system by pairing instant settlement with global payment connectivity, foreign exchange, and treasury management tools.
Existing blockchains aren’t designed for the privacy and compliance requirements of global financial institutions. We’re taking a fundamentally different approach, building privacy, programmable compliance, and identity and authorization directly into the blockchain.
Private rails for regulated finance
Alta is launching its debut product to focus on liquidity management. This will help businesses shrink the cash buffers held in prefunded accounts by using tokenised assets for just-in-time funding.
Firms can shift instantly into and out of yield-bearing tokenised assets to earn interest on capital that would otherwise sit idle.
The architecture operates across multiple assets, chains and jurisdictions, and is intended to support both institutional finance and agentic commerce.
Technology alone won’t be enough to modernize global finance. Financial institutions need infrastructure they can trust, with clear controls over who they’re transacting with, where money can move, and how sensitive information is protected.
Partnership with Airwallex
Airwallex has signed on to build on Alta, linking its global payments network to the blockchain. This will give access to local fiat payment rails spanning 200 countries and 90 currencies.
Beyond stablecoin pay-ins and pay-outs, the arrangement will support a wide range of payment methods. Alta positions itself as neutral infrastructure open to banks, payment providers and other financial institutions.
With the rise of agentic banking and programmable payments, stablecoins are becoming an important vector for settlement. Financial institutions need blockchain infrastructure that is private, neutral, regulated, and connected to global fiat rails.
Next steps
Alta will direct the fresh capital towards further development of its blockchain infrastructure, broadening its institutional partnerships and global financial connectivity, and expanding its engineering and compliance teams.
The company is launching as regulatory clarity improves and institutional appetite for tokenised finance grows. Alta develops institutional-grade blockchain infrastructure that lets financial assets and products move instantly, globally and programmatically.
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