Singapore-based fintech company Hashstacs Pte Ltd (STACS) has recently closed a S$4.8 million pre-series A funding round to support its intentions to continue scaling its blockchain-powered decentralised finance (defi) solutions to aid financial institutions in improving on existing legacy information systems and work processes.
Hashstacs operates its own tech stack built around its proprietary STACS blockchain infrastructure. Offering ease of integration with existing legacy tech stacks, Hashstacs’ full stack defi platform cuts down the need for excessive interfacing between intermediaries and disparate information systems used by financial institutions in everyday work flow, such as in dealing with international clearing and settlement systems. Thus, by acting as a centralised platform for work processes, Hashstacs aims to significantly reduce time lags, risks and excessive costs associated with the fragmentation of information flows into multiple concurrent processing layers, allowing financial institutions to streamline information flows and optimise processes at scale and at speed. On-chain enforcement of transactions via smart contracts affords greater visibility and security by eliminating errors and failed trades, significantly speeding up settlement times and unlocking massive value for financial institutions.
The success of Hashstacs points to growing receptivity towards enterprise adoption of blockchain-enabled middleware, indicating a greater acceptance of ‘defi as a service’, whereby enterprise blockchain firms develop 3rd party solutions utilising their own infrastructure, thus reducing the technical complexity and high sunk costs of developing in-house blockchain capabilities. Hence, startups stand to potentially rewrite industry best practices by radically improving on outdated work processes, presenting a significant market opportunity for players in the nascent regional blockchain scene.
Hashstac’s latest funding round also included participation from government-backed Tribe blockchain accelerator, which forms a part of the Singapore government’s broad strategies to support local entrepreneurs in further developing and commercialising blockchain technologies. This follows news that a group of Singaporean government agencies launched a new blockchain research program – the Singapore Blockchain Innovation Programme (SBIP) In December last year with S$12 million in funding. Going forward, we are likely to continue to see closer collaboration between government agencies, private industry and startups involved in enterprise blockchain technology, and we are excited to see how this trend continues to develop.
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