Messaging App And Wall Street Darling, Symphony, Raises $63M

Symphony, a secure messaging app that has 15 of the largest banks across the globe as investors, raised $63 million in funding to bankroll its expansion.

According to a report in TechCrunch, which cited sources close to the company, Symphony is now valued at $ 1 billion.

The new round of funding includes a new investor — French bank BNP Paribas — which was the lead investor and also gets a seat on the board. The report noted a large amount of Symphony’s existing shareholders took part in the round of fundraising, including Google, Lakestar, Natixis, Societe Generale, UBS and Merus Capital. Other investors included a consortium of 14 of the world’s largest investment banks and money managers, such as Bank of America, BlackRock, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and JPMorgan. The company has now raised $229 million.

“We get a lot of interest, and conversations are always ongoing,” said a company spokeswoman, declining to comment on the fundraising. “At this point, we feel like we are well-funded.” The spokeswoman told TechCrunch BNP Paribas is a “strategic investor — one reason why we wanted them.”

Symphony has grown its business largely by going after the financial services sector with a messaging service that lets people in a company communicate with each other, but also lets them speak with contacts outside their organization using the same secure platform.

The company’s main competitors are other messaging apps going after the business market and other services that bankers already use to communicate with each other, such as a Bloomberg terminal.

“We are thrilled to have the support of our new and existing investors as we accelerate global platform adoption,” said David Gurlé, founder and CEO of Symphony, in a statement. “This financing is a recognition of the value our customers have experienced as the Symphony community has grown. Our customers’ desire to make Symphony their central platform and replace legacy tools is an endorsement of the efficiencies brought by an integrated collaboration platform and streamlined workflow.”