Eager to abandon the 200-year-old paper-based “bank guarantee” process and move to a more efficient and stable digital system, the creation of Lygon comes as banks have given in to the growing popularity of emerging blockchain systems widely used to store and trade tokens for cryptocurrency on highly secure networks.

And following its formation last year by ANZ, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank, Scentre Group and IBM, the consortium announced it had raised $12.75 million in a Series A oversubscribed funding round – a significant increase from its initial Series A pre-funding of August last year, which won $5 million.

The funding round, led by ANZ Bank, Commonwealth Bank and Aura Ventures, marks an important step in Lygon’s ambitious development of its digital bank guarantee system, which uses a computer process to validate transaction information by creating a new ‘block’ and recording of this information on the blockchain – a process called “mining”.

Lygon's new blockchain bank guarantee process is designed to take seconds, as opposed to potentially weeks, to secure leases, projects or property - a major development for banks looking to cut out expensive and slow paper trails and instead focus on on providing quick service to possibly impatient customers.

Lygon chief executive Justin Amos said the capital would be used to fund increased resources needed to attract new customers, continue to support Lygon's overseas subsidiaries and fund research and development to provide other forms of digital financial contracts.

"We are extremely pleased to have completed our Series A funding round, successfully exceeding our equity target of $10 million, reflecting the strong demand for our services both domestically and internationally," said Mr Amos.

He thanked Bishop and Fang Capital Advisory for assisting Lygon in the fundraising process and Lygon's legal team, Piper Alderman, for its ongoing support.

Mr Amos said staff was again a priority in this round of funding and that $12.75 million of capital would go towards increased resources, overseas expansion and research and development.

"We are thrilled with the breadth and depth of our investor base and I would like to thank all of our shareholders - especially those who have reinvested or indicated a willingness to invest in future funding rounds," said Mr. Amos.