Venture capital-backed secure messaging app Symphony Communications has brought its total capital raised to more than $460m thanks to a new round led by Standard Chartered and MUFG Innovation Partners.
The $165m round, which also included repeat investment from JP Morgan and other existing backers, continues a trend of big financial services players looking to get a stake in the company.
Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse Group and Morgan Stanley are also among previous backers of Symphony, whose app is of great interest to many banks due to its offering of flexible, secure and compliant messaging services.
Symphony, which was founded in 2014, now has more than 430,000 licensed users from over 60 countries.
Darren Cohen, global head of Principal Strategic Investments at Goldman Sachs, said, “While we’re thrilled with Symphony’s traction and global network buildout, we also believe the transformative period of Symphony’s journey is just beginning.
“The rapid proliferation of Symphony bots and application integrations across the trade lifecycle and throughout the enterprise gives us a glimpse into the future.
“Symphony’s secure infrastructure and diverse ecosystem will enable the industry to unlock significant operational efficiency and meaningfully enhance the client experience.”
BNP Paribas head of corporate and institutional banking Yann Gerardin added, “Symphony has generated tremendous interest for revolutionising buy-side and sell-side secure messaging and collaboration in global markets, both in content curation and consumption as well as the workflow across the whole deal life-cycle.
“We are proud to support the company’s next stage of growth and to ensure its ongoing adoption by our clients and in our company.”
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