| Symphony | |
| Industry: | Financial Technology |
| Genre: | Communication software |
Symphony is an instant messaging service designed for use by financial firms. It offers features such as encryption, group messaging, the ability to share rich content, and support for third-party plugins. Symphony is developed by Symphony Communication Services.
The technology was initially developed by Goldman Sachs as an internal messaging system called Live Current.[1] In October 2014, Goldman Sachs and 14 other financial institutions invested $66 million to establish Symphony Communication Services LLC[2] and acquire Perzo, Inc.,[3] a secure communication application known for its end-to-end encryption messaging.[4]
Perzo was founded by David Gurle in 2012, and he served as Symphony's CEO from 2014 to 2021.[5] Gurle played a role in developing communication solutions for Skype, Thomson Reuters, and Microsoft.[6]
Symphony 2.0 was announced during the company's annual Innovate Conference in New York City in October 2019.[7] This new version introduced features like a customizable user interface and smart notifications. The release of software components called Elements aimed to facilitate the development of custom applications on the Symphony platform.[8] Symphony 2.0 was launched one year later.[9]
By 2020, Symphony claimed to have amassed over 400,000 users on its platform.
Brad Levy joined Symphony in July 2020 as the president and chief commercial officer. In June 2021, he assumed the role of chief executive officer after former founder David Gurle stepped down from the executive position. Levy had previous experience working at Goldman Sachs and IHS Markit before joining Symphony.[10]
In September 2014, fifteen financial firms, including Bank of America and BNY Mellon, made investments in Symphony.[11]
In October 2015, Symphony announced a successful funding round of $100 million, led by Google. Lakestar, Natixis, and other firms also participated in the investment.[12]
In May 2017, Symphony secured an additional $63 million in funding from BNP Paribas and existing investors, resulting in a total valuation of the company surpassing $1 billion.[13]
In June 2019, Symphony announced a funding round of $165 million with a valuation of $1.4 billion. Standard Chartered, MUFG Innovation Partners, and other undisclosed current and new investors contributed to the funding. Since September 2014, Symphony has raised a total of $460 million.[14]
The company's most recent funding round took place in December 2020, known as the Series E round, where it raised $50 million from existing investors.[15]
On November 28, 2014, Symphony Communication Services LLC completed the acquisition of technology assets from Collaboration Services, the open messaging network developed by Markit Ltd. The financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.[16]
On August 2, 2021, Symphony Communication Services LLC acquired StreetLinx, a counterparty mapping platform.[17]
The Symphony Software Foundation has announced its decision to use the Apache License 2.0 for providing the software as open-source. The foundation will make the contributions available through its GitHub repository.