Adhara is merging with fellow institutional blockchain developer ioBuilders in a move that expands their scale to serve institutions through an expanded product offering. Fnality partner Adhara offers tokenized cash and settlement solutions, whereas ioBuilders has focused on capital markets. The combined company is headquartered in London and profitable with more than 120 staff across offices in London, Spain, South Africa and Singapore.
Both firms were founded in 2018 and have a focus on Ethereum technologies, although ioBuilders also works with Hedera Hashgraph. Each company has worked with numerous banks. Adhara’s biggest customer is Fnality, the wholesale settlement solution owned by 20 institutions. That’s resulted in it working alongside the DTCC, Lloyds and Santander with other projects involving Deutsche Bank and UBS. It also has a contract from the Bank of Spain for a wholesale CBDC and tokenized deposit trial.
ioBuilders with its 80 staff has also partnered several institutions, including the BME stock exchange, IDB and BBVA for a bond issuance, and Renta 4 Banco and Allfunds for fund tokenization. The company is a co-founder of the OpenBrick real estate tokenization solution in which BME’s parent SIX is also an investor.
“This is a pivotal moment for the financial sector,” said Adhara CEO Julio Faura. “Digital finance is now real, and we offer the production-ready tools institutions need to lead.”
The merger builds on existing connections between the firms. Julio Faura is also listed as a founder of ioBuilders and his brother provides legal counsel for both firms. Faura becomes Chairman with ioBuilders CEO Carlos Matilla retaining a CEO role of the combined entity, and Adhara COO Peter Munnings remains in that role.
Industry investors see the combination as strategically significant. “This is the leading bank-to-bank blockchain software provider globally – ready to replace incumbents,” said Gerrit Seidel, General Partner at Yabeo which co-led Adhara’s 2021 Series A funding.
