Blockchain firm secures $55 million funding

US blockchain firm Ripple has raised $55 million in funding from investors including Standard Chartered, Accenture and SBI Holdings.

This latest investment takes Ripple’s total funding to over $93 million with existing investors including Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz and IDG Capital Partners.

“This investment is part of our commitment to the bank’s digitisation agenda. Ripple is one of the most advanced distributed financial technology companies in the industry with a tested and viable solution,” said Alex Manson, global head, transaction banking, Standard Chartered.

“Leveraging Ripple’s deep expertise in technology, financial services and compliance, we can co-develop more use cases to better serve our clients and their ecosystems’ needs in an evolving marketplace.”

The only current provider of enterprise Blockchain options, Ripple’s network includes 15 of the top 50 global banks.

“Our mission is to make cross-border payments truly efficient for banks and their customers, and in doing so, lay the foundation for an internet of value where the world moves money as easily as information,” said Ripple CEO & co-founder Chris Larsen.

The investment marks the latest development for blockchain technology which has been hailed by custodians as the future of the industry with potential to streamline processes such as settlement, clearing and corporate actions.

Earlier this month the World Federation of Exchanges pushed for a global approach to the technology in direct response to the European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) discussion paper on blockchain.