STACS bags US$3.6M pre-Series A Funding

Singapore: STACS, a Singapore-based fintech startup providing blockchain technologies for financial services, has raised US$3.6 million in pre-Series A funding.

This round brings its total funding raised to date to more than US$6 million.

Led by Wavemaker Partners, the latest funding is a ‘prelude’ to its Series A round, which STACS said will commence on a larger scale later this year.

Government-backed blockchain accelerator Tribe, beside Stellar Partners, also participated.

STACS was a graduate of Tribe’s third accelerator batch last year.

As per a press release, STACS will use the fresh fund to ‘expand its ecosystem of global financial institutions on its Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)-enabling technology infrastructure.’

Founded in 2019, STAC’s Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platforms support the effective lifecycle management of securities and ESG financing dimensions, encompassing green and sustainability-linked bonds and loans.

STACS aims to digitalize assets, processes, and documents using its patent-pending STACS Blockchain technology.

Its clients and partners include global banks, national stock exchanges, and asset managers.

Having implemented its real-time trade processing platform live with Eastspring Investments and BNP Paribas Securities Services in 2020, STACS claims it successfully reduced trade breaks for both institutions by more than 90 percent.

The company has since leveraged its same core patent-pending blockchain technology to launch GreenSTACS, an industry-wide ESG financing technology infrastructure that supports effective green and sustainability-linked loans and bonds.

“Since the 1970s, the capital markets have been fragmented, with institutions operating on different systems and ledgers, and going through a linearly-dependent process which has led to a situation whereby US$800 billion of capital is being locked up every single day in the international clearing system,” shared Ray Ferguson, Chairman at STACS, said:

“Due to multiple layers of processing, nearly US$300 billion is being spent on transaction costs in a model that one would be hard-pressed to argue is efficient. This is all wastage — wasted time, wasted money, wasted carbon footprints — that we at STACS are committed to addressing through our distributed ledger technology. Innovating our way out of these problems is vital if we are to deliver a green and sustainable future for financial services,” Ferguson added.

“There is an immense opportunity to help financial institutions process large volumes of trades more quickly, securely, and accurately while reducing costs and illiquid capital. As an enterprise distributed ledger technology provider, STACS has productized a secure layer that can be deployed instantly above existing infrastructure,” said Gavin Lee, General Partner at Wavemaker Partners.

“Enterprise sales is never easy for young companies, but Benjamin (co-founder and Managing Director of STACS) is a convincing and seasoned serial entrepreneur who has secured numerous leading financial institutions as key clients. We are excited to be part of the future digitalization of capital markets,” Lee added.