Alta, a blockchain infrastructure startup co-founded by Airwallex chief executive Jack Zhang, has raised $47.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Index Ventures to develop a private settlement network for regulated financial institutions.

The investment brings the company’s total disclosed capital to $80 million, following an earlier $32.5 million seed round. Formerly known as Metal, Alta is attempting to construct a compliance-focused network that allows banks and enterprises to move tokenised assets and settle payments across borders without exposing transaction ledgers to the public internet.

Index Ventures led the round, with participation from GV, Blackbird Ventures, Square Peg, and Capital 49. The capital will fund the deployment of a blockchain designed specifically to overcome the transparency and regulatory hurdles that have historically prevented mainstream banks from adopting decentralised ledgers for core operations.

Infrastructure for Regulated Institutions

Public blockchains broadcast wallet balances and transaction histories to all network participants, a fundamental design that violates the privacy requirements of commercial banking. Alta addresses this constraint by building an institutional-grade network where institutions can transact privately while maintaining cryptographic proof of settlement.

The system allows financial entities to tokenise traditional assets, including stablecoins pegged to fiat currencies, and move them instantaneously. Chief Executive Loong Wang, who previously founded and sold the blockchain firm Ren, has stated that the platform enforces strict identity and compliance checks. Unlike permissionless networks where anyone can create a wallet or force a transfer, Alta restricts participation to verified entities and allows institutions to apply specific transaction policies.

This architecture aims to replicate the privacy of traditional closed-loop banking systems while harnessing the speed and programmability of blockchain technology. By isolating transaction data from public view, the network provides a theoretical foundation for banks to meet strict data-protection mandates.

Airwallex Partnership and Distribution

Alta’s market strategy relies heavily on its affiliation with Airwallex, the global payments giant currently valued at approximately $8 billion. Jack Zhang, who co-founded Airwallex in 2015, serves as a co-founder of Alta and has positioned his payments company as the startup’s primary design and launch partner.

Airwallex intends to connect its global network to the Alta blockchain, facilitating pay-ins and payouts via stablecoins alongside local fiat rails across 200 countries. This integration provides Alta with an immediate distribution channel, allowing it to test its infrastructure against real-world cross-border payment volumes.

Zhang, who previously expressed scepticism regarding the utility of cryptocurrencies, has indicated that the inherent efficiency of stablecoins for money transfers justifies the development of dedicated institutional rails. Airwallex’s involvement provides Alta with a critical bridge between digital assets and traditional banking systems, a connection that standalone blockchain startups often struggle to establish.

Overcoming Legacy Settlement Inefficiencies

The current global financial system relies on a fragmented network of correspondent banks to process international transfers. When money moves across borders, it passes through multiple intermediaries, each imposing its own compliance checks, operating hours, and settlement delays.

Industry estimates suggest that approximately $1.5 trillion in United States dollars is in transit on any given day, tying up capital and resulting in billions of dollars in lost interest. While modern fintech platforms present a consumer-facing illusion of instantaneous transfers, they typically achieve this by maintaining pre-funded pools of capital in local markets and rebalancing their ledgers behind the scenes.

Alta seeks to eliminate this reliance on pre-funded accounts by enabling continuous, real-time settlement directly between institutions. If successful, the network would allow banks to free up working capital and reduce the foreign exchange and counterparty risks associated with multi-day transit periods.

Market Competition and Future Integration

The attempt to build a blockchain for banking places Alta in a highly competitive sector alongside several well-capitalised rivals. The Canton Network, backed by major institutions including Goldman Sachs, offers a similar privacy-preserving ledger for financial assets. Partior, a joint venture involving JPMorgan and DBS Bank, is already processing live commercial transactions. Furthermore, established payment processors like Stripe have integrated stablecoin payouts using existing networks.

Alta’s distinct advantage lies in its purpose-built focus on identity and compliance at the protocol level. However, the startup has not yet disclosed independent production traction or named a substantial roster of unaffiliated banking clients beyond its Airwallex partnership.

The success of the $47.5 million investment will depend on Alta’s ability to transition from a conceptual design partner to a widely adopted standard. For the network to achieve its intended scale, it must persuade deeply conservative financial institutions to abandon decades-old messaging systems in favour of an unproven cryptographic infrastructure.