HIFI raises $37 million to build tokenized money settlement rails

HIFI, a stablecoin payments and tokenized assets startup, raised $37 million in a Series A round led by Left Lane Capital. The New York company announced the deal on September 24, 2026. It plans to build settlement rails for tokenized money.

That figure came from a company blog post and a press release issued by HIFI. The Block reported the same number at about 12:00 UTC the same day, and crypto.news carried it too. Neither the valuation nor the names of other backers were made public. By crypto.news counts, it was the largest disclosed crypto venture round that week.

What the startup sells

HIFI sells software that ties money movement, compliance, and settlement into one link. It runs across bank rails and digital tokens at once. The idea is plumbing. Businesses plug in to send payouts and to move stablecoins. Customer use grew fourfold over the past six months, the company said.

Zach Walsh, chief executive and co-founder of HIFI, put the pitch in one line. "We think of settlement as one problem, not three," Walsh said in the release. He and Mohamed Afifi, the chief operating officer, started the firm in New York in 2022.

Plumbing, in plain terms. That is the sell. Most people will never touch it, yet money would move through it every day.

Why the round matters

Tokenized money is the name for cash and securities issued straight on a blockchain. Banks and asset managers have tested it for years. HIFI wants to sit under those tests as the settlement layer. Left Lane Capital led the check and took a seat at the table.

Stablecoins now move real sums between businesses each day. Card networks, banks, and trading firms have started to plug them into older systems. HIFI aims to be the wiring behind that shift. Growth here has been quick, though the base was small.

Matthew Miller, managing partner at Left Lane Capital, will join HIFI's board. "HIFI is building an important layer in that market, giving developers the infrastructure to create products that can operate across networks and borders," Miller said. His firm backs founders working on hard problems in messy markets.

Marquee names sit near the startup. In July, HIFI took part in production trades run by the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation using tokenized securities, alongside BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, and Nasdaq. It has also joined a Visa program that funds payouts to cards. Those links help explain the investor interest.

Named customers include Sumitomo, Dapper, and Arival Bank, per the company. HIFI also pointed to a live tokenized repo trade on the Canton Network with Tradeweb, DRW, and Marex, plus a tie to the Circle Payments Network. Push-to-card payouts run through Visa Direct.

Executives listed three uses for the money. They want more regulatory licenses, a bigger team, and new products in cards and capital markets. Each of those costs cash up front. Returns, if any, arrive later.

Rivals are chasing the same job. Circle, the Bridge unit owned by Stripe, and other firms sell stablecoin and payout tools to businesses. HIFI argues its edge is one link that covers payments and tokenized assets together. That claim will be settled by clients, not by a funding round.

Reasons for caution

Big numbers deserve a second look. An annualized run rate scales a recent stretch up to a year, so it is not cash booked over twelve real months. HIFI did not share revenue, profit, or a valuation. Volume is not income.

Pilot trades are not steady business. Those DTCC trades were a production test, not a signed long-term contract. Large banks run many trials that never turn into paid volume. What sticks is still unknown.

One reading says stablecoin plumbing is now a real business that backers will fund. A colder reading says money is cheap and tokenization is a crowded field. Both can be true.

What to watch

Three signs will show whether the cash was well spent. First, look for new licenses, since HIFI named regulatory approvals as a top use of funds. Second, watch whether pilot partners turn into paying clients. Third, track the card and capital-markets products the firm promised. A slip on any one of those would matter more than the raise itself.

HIFI said it will grow its team in New York and abroad. It gave no headcount target. Growth over the past six months was fourfold, the company said, though it did not give a starting base for that math. Building payment rails is like laying pipe before the water is turned on: the cost comes first, and demand shows up later, if it shows up at all.