Blockchain consortium R3 said Tuesday it has completed the first two of three tranches in its Series A fundraising round, securing USD 107 million in the world’s largest distributed ledger technology (DLT) investment to date.
R3 is the largest consortium of global financial institutions collaborating to develop a platform and commercial applications for DLT. Top investors include SBI Group, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, HSBC, Intel & Temasek.
R3 will use the funds to accelerate technology development and expand strategic partnerships for product deployment, the company stated.
The company’s efforts will be focused on Corda, R3’s DLT platform for regulated financial institutions, and its infrastructure network, which will support a vast range of partner-built financial applications that interoperate seamlessly with each other, existing systems and networks.
“Innovation in digital technologies is reshaping the banking industry, and this investment is reflective of our belief that distributed ledger technology and smart contracts have the potential to significantly enhance capital markets infrastructure,” said Andrew Challis, Managing Director of Strategic Investments at Barclays.
The first two tranches of the Series A round were made available only to R3 members, while the third and final tranche – which opens later this year – will be accessible to R3 members and non-R3 institutional investors.
