For a Startup that just launched last month, Symphony has done a great job building a buzz, as well as hefty valuation. Behind its rise from messaging app obscurity to Wall Street darling is the consortium of banks and financial firms led by Goldman Sachs that are backing the company. As a result, Symphony hasn’t only arrived to market with a messaging solution to rival that of Bloomberg’s, but more importantly with a large community of banks and massive user base.
Beyond creating a secure messaging platform available for both intra and cross-firm communication, Symphony has its aims on grabbing a larger slice of the financial market pie. This includes partnering with third parties to create an app like marketplace of unbundled financial products such as market data, news and analysis.
Beyond just Wall Street, other investors are also beginning to see the potential of Symphony and its plans. After raising $66 million from the bank consortium last October, Symphony has been rumored to be working on another round of funding over the last few months.
Among new investors, the latest reports emerging are that Google is believed to be in talks of participating in a Funding Round of Symphony. According to the Wall Street Journal, the potential funding is based on a $650 million valuation for Symphony. The addition of Google could also help position Symphony beyond just the financial markets as it aims on a larger goal of providing a secure messaging alternative to the enterprise market.
