Alta, a financial infrastructure start-up developing blockchain rails for regulated institutions, has secured $47.5m in Series A capital, lifting its total funding to $80m as it targets the estimated $4tn locked in prefunded accounts worldwide.

Index Ventures led the Series A, joined by GV (Google Ventures), Blackbird Ventures, Square Peg and Capital 49. The round follows $32.5m that Alta had previously raised through seed financing.

The company argues that the current financial system remains fragmented and slow. Cross-border transfers can take several days to complete, and institutions are forced to hold large cash reserves across jurisdictions and payment networks to guarantee liquidity. Alta aims to remove this friction by pairing instant settlement with global payment connectivity, foreign exchange and treasury management tools.

Its technology rests on a new blockchain design that uses recursive zero-knowledge cryptography. This allows institutions to shield balances, transactions, identities and compliance policies from view while still proving that each transaction satisfies the relevant rules.

The architecture operates across multiple assets, chains and jurisdictions, and is intended to support both institutional finance and agentic commerce.

Airwallex has signed on to build on Alta, linking its global payments network to the blockchain. Beyond stablecoin pay-ins and pay-outs, the arrangement will give access to local fiat payment rails spanning 200 countries and 90 currencies. Alta positions itself as neutral infrastructure open to banks, payment providers and other financial institutions.

Alta develops institutional-grade blockchain infrastructure that lets financial assets and products move instantly, globally and programmatically. Where much existing infrastructure was designed with crypto-native use cases in mind, Alta targets the privacy, compliance, neutrality and operational standards demanded by regulated institutions.

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