US-based blockchain technology provider Axoni increased its series B round to $36m on Tuesday with a $4m investment from financial services firm HSBC, increasing its total funding to $59m.
Investment bank Goldman Sachs and venture capital firm Nyca Partners co-led the $32m first close of the round in August 2018, with participation from investment bank JP Morgan, trading technology provider NEX Group and financial services firms Citi and Wells Fargo.
F-Prime Capital, a subsidiary of investment and financial services group Fidelity, also took part in the initial close, as did Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue Management, Digital Currency Group, Franklin Templeton Investments and Y Combinator.
Founded in 2013, Axoni has developed a distributed ledger technology product called Axcore that allows financial firms to securely share data and calculations that can be synchronised between systems.
The funding will be used to expand Axoni’s product range and enhance its technology. It plans to develop a smart contracting language that will facilitate verification in conjunction with the Ethereum cryptocurrency.
Matthew Flanigan, chief operating office of HSBC Global Banking and Markets, Americas, said: “Distributed ledger technology will clearly be important in modernising the shared infrastructure of capital markets.
“Axoni has demonstrated that they are the leader in this space and HSBC is delighted to work with them on increasing efficiency and lowering costs for the industry.”
The latest round follows a series A closed in May 2017 that featured media and data group Thomson Reuters, Citi and Wells Fargo as well as NEX Group’s Euclid Opportunities vehicle.
The amount raised in the series A round was undisclosed but greater than $20m. The round also included Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, F-Prime, Andreessen Horowitz, Digital Currency Group and FinTech Collective.