Alta, the blockchain infrastructure startup previously called Metal, has closed a $47.5 million Series A round led by Index Ventures. The company's announcement on X put the figure at $48 million.
Its pitch is a blockchain designed for institutions that would prefer not to have to explain a compliance failure to their regulators.
Who wrote the checks
Index Ventures headed the round, which research places on November 10, 2026. GV, the venture arm formerly named Google Ventures, also participated.
Blackbird Ventures, Square Peg and Capital49 complete the investor list. Several of these firms have strong links to Australia's startup ecosystem, which aligns with the company's origins.
The Series A comes after an earlier $32.5 million seed round, which was mainly backed by Australian fintech Airwallex.
Taken together, Alta has raised $80 million in total so far.
Airwallex holds a dual role: it is both an investor and a key channel through which Alta's technology reaches customers.
What Alta is actually building
Alta is building a Layer 1 blockchain shaped around institutional requirements. Three features are highlighted in its description.
Programmable compliance. Alta says compliance controls are embedded in every transaction. Rather than verifying rules after funds move, the rules accompany the money and are enforced during the transfer.
Privacy through recursive zero-knowledge proofs. Zero-knowledge proofs allow one party to show that a statement is true without disclosing the underlying data. The recursive variant nests proofs within other proofs, so an institution could show a transaction follows the rules without exposing every detail publicly.
Stablecoin payments and tokenized assets. The chain is intended to support stablecoin-based payments and tokenized assets.
Alta's blockchain is aiming to support roughly 200 countries and 90 currencies for cross-border payments.
The people behind it
Alta was co-founded by Loong Wang, who serves as CEO, and Catherine Porter, both of whom bring notable crypto backgrounds to the company.
The shift from Metal to Alta signals a more pointed focus on institutional customers.
What this means for the market
Index Ventures and GV are backing a specific thesis: that institutions want the benefits of blockchain without public-chain exposure.
Alta's relationship with Airwallex is its most distinctive distribution asset. A payments company already serving cross-border business customers could give Alta a potential route to meaningful transaction volume.
That arrangement carries risk as well. Heavy dependence on a single distribution partner could become a concentration problem if that partner's priorities change.
With $80 million raised, Alta now has the resources to test whether its design works across roughly 200 countries and 90 currencies. The next phase is demonstrating that institutions actually adopt it.
Source: cryptobriefing.com. Adapted by NBTC.
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