Partior, the blockchain-driven payment network, has successfully secured $60 million in its Series B funding round, spearheaded by Peak XV Partners (formerly known as Sequoia Capital India & SEA) and supported by Valor Capital Group and Jump Trading Group. This funding milestone follows an earlier $31 million raise as reported by Pitchbook, and the recent appointment of Humphrey Valenbreder as CEO.

Founded by financial giants JP Morgan, DBS Bank, and Temasek, with Standard Chartered joining later, Partior is revolutionizing international settlements through tokenization. This innovation stems from Singapore’s Project Ubin CBDC initiative. The platform enables real-time cross-border payments for clients, including other banks, with a 24/7 operational capability.

Currently, Partior supports transactions in US dollars, Singapore dollars, and Euros, with plans to expand to other currencies such as Brazil’s Real and various Gulf currencies. Noteworthy clients like Siemens and iFast Financial leverage Standard Chartered for euro transactions, enhancing liquidity control.

Partior’s roadmap includes a second solution: intraday FX swaps. A recent proof of concept featured two founding banks and Japan’s Mizuho. Another ambitious project is the Programmable Enterprise Liquidity Management system, designed to enable real-time liquidity management across multiple banks, which would greatly benefit corporate treasurers. The challenge remains whether banks can collaborate effectively despite competitive tendencies.

Transforming Correspondent Banking with DLT

The current settlement network harnesses Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to optimize cross-border payments via correspondent banking. Traditional methods rely on separate messaging and money movement, causing transparency issues and delays. DLT integrates both, allowing JP Morgan, DBS, and Standard Chartered to process transactions continuously, facilitating instant payments in their respective jurisdictions.

Dan Schulman, Managing Partner at Valor Capital Group and former CEO of PayPal, remarked, “Having dedicated much of my career to tackling global payment challenges, I recognize the critical need for modernized cross-border payment and settlement infrastructure. Partior’s platform introduces groundbreaking standards for real-time clearing and settlement, aligning with our vision to innovate financial services through blockchain technology.”

The participation of non-bank investors like Valor Capital and Jump Trading, both with significant cryptocurrency interests, suggests a push towards accelerated innovation within Partior, despite its institutional focus.

Partior also brands itself as a Unified Ledger, echoing terminology from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). The BIS’s Project Agorá, involving seven central banks, shares similar goals of modernizing correspondent banking through tokenization, aligning with Partior’s pioneering efforts.