Metal raises nearly $50 million in Airwallex-backed seed round

Metal, a stablecoin infrastructure startup co-founded by Melbourne entrepreneur Loong Wang, has raised nearly $50 million in an extraordinarily large seed funding round.

The massive funding injection was led jointly by digital payments heavyweight Airwallex and its venture capital arm, Capital 49. The deal, which was completed in late June, represents a significant bet on blockchain-based financial systems by one of Australia's most successful technology companies.

Who is behind Metal?

The startup was established by Loong Wang, an entrepreneur active in the Melbourne technology and digital asset ecosystem, alongside Catherine Porter, a former executive at Facebook's parent company Meta.

The co-founders are building Metal to provide the backend technology for tokenised financial products and stablecoin payments. While typical early-stage software startups raise small seed rounds of a few million dollars to build an initial prototype, Metal’s nearly $50 million capital raise gives it a substantial war chest right out of the gate.

The size of the round reflects a sharp turn in how major fintech players view stablecoins—cryptocurrencies pegged to the value of traditional currencies like the US dollar. Once seen as speculative tools for crypto traders, stablecoins are now being adopted for real-world business transactions because they can bypass slow and expensive traditional banking networks.

What is stablecoin infrastructure?

For stablecoins and tokenised assets to be used widely by businesses, they require robust underlying technology. Metal is building the plumbing that allows companies to issue, manage, and transact with these digital assets.

This includes the software interfaces, compliance frameworks, and ledger systems needed to bridge the gap between legacy banking and public blockchains. By focusing on infrastructure, Metal is positioning itself as a utility provider for other financial institutions and businesses that want to use digital currencies without having to build their own systems from scratch.

Expanding into the United States

Metal is targeting the United States market, where institutional interest in digital assets is high but the technical barriers to entry remain steep. The Australian Financial Review first reported the funding round, highlighting it as a prominent example of Australian tech founders securing large-scale backing to compete internationally.

Airwallex’s involvement is particularly notable. As a global payments platform valued at billions of dollars, its decision to lead the round suggests it sees blockchain infrastructure as a complementary technology to its own cross-border payment network.

Neither Metal nor Airwallex have disclosed the startup's post-money valuation. It is also not yet clear which specific financial products or partnerships Metal plans to announce first as it begins deploying its new capital.