Symphony Communication

Symphony is an instant messaging service aimed at financial firms. It supports encryption, group messaging, rich content sharing and third-party plugins. Symphony is developed by Symphony Communication Services.[1]

Symphony
IndustrySoftware
GenreCommunication software
Websitewww.symphony.com

Development history

The technology was first built as an internal messaging system by Goldman Sachs called Live Current.[2] In October 2014, Goldman Sachs along with 14 other financial institutions created and invested $66M[3] in Symphony Communication Services LLC and acquired Perzo, Inc.,[4] a secure communication application that provided end-to-end encryption messaging.[5]

Perzo was founded by David Gurle in 2012 and David is currently the company's CEO.[6] He was involved in developing the communication offerings at Skype, Thomson Reuters, and Microsoft.[7]

On September 15, 2015, Symphony made a public release of its platform and announced partnerships with DowJones, McGraw Hill Financial, and Selerity. McGraw Hill Financial will integrate its financial information tool, S&P Capital IQ and Dow Jones will provide its entire live news feed of about 10,000 stories to the new platform. Selerity will deliver contextually relevant news, research and their proprietary breaking news notifications, directly into the Symphony platform.[8]

Funding

In September, 2014, fifteen financial firms invested in Symphony: Bank of America, BNY Mellon, BlackRock, Citadel, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, Jefferies, JPMorgan, Maverick, Morgan Stanley, Nomura and Wells Fargo.[9]

In October, 2015, Symphony announced it had raised $100 million in a new round of funding led by Google, with additional investment from Lakestar, Natixis, Société Générale, UBS Group and venture capitalist Merus Capital.[10]

In May 2017, it raised $63 million in additional funding from BNP Paribas as well as its existing investors, bringing the total valuation above $1 billion.[11]

In June 2019, Symphony announced a $165 million funding round with a valuation at $1.4 billion. The funding came from Standard Chartered, MUFG Innovation Partners, and other unnamed current and new investors. Symphony has raised $460 million since September 2014.[12]

Acquisitions

On November 28, 2014, Symphony Communication Services LLC acquired technology assets developed by Collaboration Services, the open messaging network from Markit Ltd. for an undisclosed amount.[13]

License

The Symphony Software Foundation has announced it would use the Apache License 2.0 to provide the software as open-source. The contributions will be made available under the foundation's Github repository.

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References
  1. "Symphony: Transforming Wall Street Communication". Goldman Sachs. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  2. Tracy Alloway. "Goldman's Symphony of Babble". Financial Times. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  3. Baer, Justin. "Goldman-Led Group of Firms Buys Perzo to Form Instant-Messaging Company". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  4. LaCapra, Lauren. "Goldman leads investment by Wall Street in new communications platform". Reuters. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  5. Fulton, Kane. "Perzo: a military-grade messaging service that keeps the NSA at arms' length". Techradar. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  6. Miller, Ron. "Wall Street-Backed Symphony Wants To Revolutionize Financial Services Communication". TechCrunch. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  7. Baer, Justin. "Wall Street's Chat Plan Turns to Perzo's Chief". The Wall Street Journal. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  8. McLannahan, Ben. "Symphony launches Wall Street network". Financial Times. Financial Times. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  9. Spring, Tom. "Goldman Sachs-Backed Symphony Launches Secure Social Network". IT BOB. The Channel Company. Retrieved 17 March 2015.
  10. Booton, Jennifer. "Google Leads $100 Million Funding Round For Symphony". Fox Business. Fox Business. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  11. Baer, Justin (2017-05-16). "Symphony Raises $63 Million From BNP Paribas, Others". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2017-06-11.
  12. "Symphony, a messaging app that's been a hit with Wall Street, raises $165M at a $1.4B valuation". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-06-14.
  13. Baer, Justin. "Bank-Backed Firm Buys Chat Service". WSJ. Retrieved 12 March 2015.


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