Symphony Communication Services Valuation, Funding & Investors
Symphony Communication Services is valued at $1.4B as of December 2020.
Last Symphony Communication Services valuation
$1.4B
Series E · Dec 2020
Last Symphony Communication Services funding round
$50M
Series E · Dec 2020
Cumulative funding Symphony Communication Services raised
$511M
across 6 funding rounds
Key investors in Symphony Communication Services
Citigroup
Bpifrance
Goldman Sachs
BlackRock
Lakestar
Maverick Ventures
About Symphony Communication Services
Symphony Communication Services is a secure collaboration platform tailored for financial institutions and regulated industries. Launched in 2014 and headquartered in San Francisco, it supports encrypted messaging, file sharing, and workflow integration compliant with standards like FINRA and MiFID II. Adopted by major banks such as Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan, the platform via symphony.com facilitates team communications within a single application.
Founded
2014
HQ
New York City, NYWebsite
Status
Privately held
Customer focus
B2B
Revenue model
Subscription
Valuation
$1.4B (Dec 2020)
Symphony Communication Services Valuation
Symphony Communication Services is currently valued at $1.4B, based on its Series E in December 2020.
Symphony Communication Services' valuation has grown 2.2x from $650M at its Series B in October 2015 to $1.4B in December 2020, across 5 priced rounds.
Symphony Communication Services valuation by funding round
| Date | Stage | Valuation |
|---|---|---|
| Dec 2020 | Series E | $1.4B |
| Jun 2019 | Series E | $1.4B |
| Apr 2018 | Series D | $1.1B |
| May 2017 | Series C | $1B |
| Oct 2015 | Series B | $650M |
Symphony Communication Services Funding History
Symphony Communication Services has raised a total of $511M across 6 funding rounds.
Symphony Communication Services' first fundraising round was a $66M Series A in October 2014. The most recent completed round was a $50M Series E in December 2020.
Symphony Communication Services funding rounds
| Date | Stage | Investors | Raised | Valuation | Deal Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dec 2020 | Series E | - | $50M | $1.4B | Symphony Communication Services is a secure team collaboration platform originally developed by Goldman Sachs as an internal messaging system called Live Current, spun out in 2014 with investments from 15 financial firms including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, BNY Mellon, Citi, Credit Suisse, HSBC, and JPMorgan, acquiring Perzo Inc. for end-to-end encrypted messaging. The company targets financial services, facilitating secure communication, workflow automation, and digital transformation for buy-side and sell-side institutions. By 2019, Symphony had raised over $460 million total from financial services firms, venture capital funds, and tech companies like Google. The closest funding round to the queried date was a Series E in June 2019, raising $165 million led by Standard Chartered and MUFG Innovation Partners, with participation from J.P. Morgan and existing investors, at a post-money valuation of $1.4 billion, achieving unicorn status. This followed prior rounds including $66 million in 2014, $100 million in 2015 led by Google, and $63 million in May 2017 from BNP Paribas valuing the company over $1 billion. Symphony expanded beyond messaging into a collaboration workflow platform for financial markets, with investors citing its role in content curation, deal lifecycle workflows, and compliant automation. Post-2019 developments include acquisitions like StreetLinx in 2021 for counterparty mapping and Amenity Analytics for NLP data analytics. |
| Jun 2019 | Series E | MUFG (lead); Standard Chartered (lead); MUFG Innovation Partners | $165M | $1.4B | Symphony Communication Services is a secure team collaboration platform specifically designed for financial services firms, offering encrypted messaging and workflow automation tools for banks, traders, and investment professionals. Founded in 2014, the company positions itself as an alternative to Bloomberg's chat tools, with pricing starting at $20 monthly per enterprise client compared to thousands of dollars charged by Bloomberg. On June 12, 2019, Symphony closed its Series E funding round at a $1.4 billion post-money valuation, raising $165 million from Standard Chartered, MUFG Innovation Partners, and existing investors including JPMorgan Chase and other major financial institutions. This brought Symphony's total capital raised to over $460 million. The platform had achieved significant traction by the funding date, with more than 430,000 licensed users across 60 countries and over 1,000 bots and applications developed on its platform by customers and partners. Symphony's investor base consists primarily of strategic financial services firms that use the platform for internal collaboration and secure client communication, reflecting its embedded position within the financial services ecosystem. The investment represented strong capital markets demand for the company's mission-critical secure communications infrastructure serving buy-side and sell-side operations globally. |
| Apr 2018 | Series D | CLSA; Barclays; Bpifrance | $67M | $1.1B | Symphony Communication Services is a Palo Alto-based provider of a secure team collaboration platform designed for financial services firms, enabling secure messaging, document sharing, conferencing, and workflow automation via APIs while complying with regulations like GDPR and maintaining information barriers. Founded in 2014 from Goldman Sachs' internal tool and Perzo Inc., it targets regulated industries with a focus on data security based on NIST and ISO standards. By April 2018, it had over 300 firms and 320,000 users, with offices in New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Stockholm, Sophia-Antipolis, and London. On April 10, 2018, Symphony raised $67 million in a funding round with new investors Barclays Corporate Banking, Bpifrance, and CLSA, plus existing investors, bringing total capital raised to over $300 million. Previous rounds included $66 million in 2014, $100 million in 2015 led by Google, and $63 million in May 2017 from BNP Paribas and others, with total funding reaching about $296 million by some accounts. The funds aimed to accelerate product roadmap, expand into insurance, legal, healthcare, and government sectors, enhance Symphony Meetings for encrypted collaboration, and grow the developer platform. Post-round reports valued Symphony at $1.1 billion, following its unicorn status after the 2017 round surpassing $1 billion. It had strong traction with 330 financial institutions and 360,000 users by mid-2018, including deployments across global networks like CLSA. Strategic moves included partnerships like Tencent for WeChat integration in banks and office expansions in Asia and Europe. Later, in June 2019, it raised $165 million at $1.4 billion valuation, solidifying its position among bank-backed investors like Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, HSBC, and BlackRock. |
| May 2017 | Series C | BNP Paribas Private Equity (lead) | $63M | $1B | Symphony Communication Services is a secure messaging app designed for the financial services industry, backed by major Wall Street banks and investors, with 200,000 paying customers and 160 financial services companies as clients at the time of the May 2017 funding round. The company raised $63 million in this round, led by BNP Paribas Private Equity, which also took a board seat, with participation from a majority of existing shareholders including Google, Lakestar, Natixis, Societe Generale, UBS, Merus Capital, and a consortium of 14 large investment banks and money managers such as Bank of America, BlackRock, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, and JP Morgan. This brought total funding to $229 million, and sources valued the company at over $1 billion post-round, confirming earlier reporting. The funding was aimed at expanding into new markets beyond finance, targeting adjacent sectors like legal, accounting, and healthcare that require strict data retention and privacy standards. Symphony emphasized its well-funded status and strategic value from BNP Paribas, aligning with the bank's digital transformation and fintech collaboration strategy. BNP Paribas Executive Head of Global Markets Olivier Osty highlighted the partnership's role in delivering exceptional client services. This round solidified Symphony's unicorn status amid growing demand for compliant communication tools in regulated industries. |
| Oct 2015 | Series B | Citigroup; Natixis; Société Générale; Bank of America; UBS; Lakestar; Merus Capital; Wells Fargo; Alphabet | $100M | $650M | Symphony Communication Services is a secure cloud-based messaging and collaboration platform initially developed for financial services firms, positioned as an alternative to tools like Bloomberg terminals with features for secure team communication, content tracking, and workflow integration. It emerged from the 2014 acquisition of Perzo by a consortium of Wall Street banks aiming to create a compliant messaging solution for finance. In October 2015, Symphony raised $100 million in a funding round that exceeded its initial $50 million target due to strong demand, with investors including Google, Lakestar, Natixis, Societe Generale, UBS, and existing backer Merus Capital, alongside mentions of Bank of America, Citi, and Wells Fargo in related contexts. This followed a $66 million round in fall 2014 from investment banks. The funds were earmarked for expanding sales and marketing, doubling headcount from 130 employees (mostly engineering-focused) over 12-18 months, and growing beyond financial services. The round valued Symphony at $650 million according to contemporary reports, reflecting investor confidence amid market volatility. By early 2016 references, a similar $100M round in March 2015 was cited at around $700 million valuation, indicating rapid growth. Symphony continued raising capital, reaching over $460 million total by 2019 with later rounds including a $165 million investment in June 2019 from Standard Chartered, MUFG, and others to bolster global expansion in capital markets. It served major banks like 14 Wall Street firms and aimed to enter sectors like healthcare, backed by strategic investors for workflow automation and digital transformation in finance. |
| Oct 2014 | Series A | BNY Mellon; HSBC; Citigroup; Deutsche Bank; Jefferies; Goldman Sachs; Maverick Ventures; BlackRock; JPMorgan Partners; Merrill Lynch; Citadel; Credit Suisse | $66M | - | Symphony Communication Services Holdings LLC was formed on October 1, 2014, through a $66 million investment from a consortium of 14 leading financial institutions including BofA Merrill Lynch, BNY Mellon, BlackRock, Citadel, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, JPMorgan, Maverick, Morgan Stanley, Nomura, and Wells Fargo. The funding enabled the acquisition of Perzo Inc., a secure trader messaging service founded in 2012 by David Gurle, who was appointed CEO of Symphony. Symphony combines Perzo's end-to-end encrypted communication technology with Goldman Sachs' proprietary enterprise collaboration platform to create a compliant, secure platform for financial services professionals. The platform addresses industry needs for secure communication and workflow amid regulatory pressures, positioning itself as an alternative to fragmented tools like email, Microsoft Lync, and instant messaging services from AOL or Yahoo. Symphony aims to consolidate collaboration, content sharing, and directory functions tailored for Wall Street, with early adoption expected from its investor firms. Part of its core technology will be open-sourced via a foundation starting the following year to encourage community contributions and broader use. Symphony targets Bloomberg's dominance in financial communications by focusing initially on secure chat services, charging $15 per user per month (free for small users under 50), while avoiding proprietary data terminals. Backers, who hold significant equity stakes similar to Merrill Lynch's historical investment in Bloomberg, view it as a scalable startup with plans for follow-on financing. |
Who has invested in Symphony Communication Services?
27 investors have backed Symphony Communication Services across its funding rounds, including Citigroup, Bpifrance, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Lakestar and Maverick Ventures.
Lead investors include MUFG, Standard Chartered and BNP Paribas Private Equity.
Symphony Communication Services Investors
| Investor | HQ | Rounds | Role | First check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Antonio, TX | 2 | Participant | Oct 2014 | |
| United States | 1 | Participant | Oct 2014 | |
 Tokyo | 1 | Participant | Jun 2019 | |
| Tokyo | 1 | Lead | Jun 2019 | |
 London | 1 | Participant | Oct 2014 | |
 France | 1 | Participant | Oct 2015 | |
| London | 1 | Lead | Jun 2019 | |
 Hong Kong | 1 | Participant | Apr 2018 | |
 Frankfurt | 1 | Participant | Oct 2014 | |
| New York City, NY | 1 | Participant | Oct 2014 | |
| Paris | 1 | Participant | Oct 2015 | |
| New York City, NY | 1 | Participant | Oct 2014 | |
| Charlotte, NC | 1 | Participant | Oct 2015 | |
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Benchmark 350K+ Funding Rounds and Disclosed VC Valuation Multiples
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Start Free TrialAcquisitions by Symphony Communication Services
Symphony Communication Services has acquired 4 companies to date.
Last acquisition by Symphony Communication Services was on November 29th 2022. Symphony Communication Services acquired Amenity Analytics for undisclosed valuation.
Latest Acquisitions by Symphony Communication Services
| Description | Amenity Analytics is a New York-based provider of text analytics platforms extracting insights from financial documents and news. The system processes SEC filings, earnings transcripts, and social media to score sentiment and identify risks for asset managers. Amenity serves hedge funds and banks using machine learning models trained on 20 years of data. Founded in 2015, it integrates with Bloomberg terminals and powers quantitative trading strategies. | StreetLinx is a financial services platform specializing in counterparty data mapping and secure information exchange. It standardizes organizational hierarchies and enables controlled bilateral sharing of entity data for compliance and operations. New York-headquartered since 2012, StreetLinx serves over 300 institutions including banks and asset managers, mapping more than 10 million relationships to support derivatives trading, KYC processes, and regulatory reporting. | Cloud9 Technologies is a cloud communications provider offering voice, video, and messaging for financial trading desks via its C9 Trader platform. Deployed on WebRTC, it replaces legacy turret systems with secure, compliant connections for inter-dealer brokers and banks. Services include low-latency audio bridging and encrypted chat compliant with MiFID II and Dodd-Frank. Headquartered in New York, Cloud9 Technologies serves over 100 trading firms globally. | Perzo is a Mumbai-based private messaging platform enabling secure group chats for enterprises, families, and teams without phone numbers. It supports end-to-end encryption for up to 10,000 members per channel, with file sharing up to 2GB and voice notes. Deployed by Indian corporates like HDFC Bank for internal comms and customer support, the app integrates with Active Directory for SSO. Available on iOS, Android, and web across 150 countries. |
| HQ Country | | | | |
| HQ City | New York City, NY | New York City, NY | New York City, NY | San Francisco, CA |
| Deal Date | 29 Nov 2022 | 2 Aug 2021 | 24 Jun 2021 | 1 Aug 2014 |
| Valuation | undisclosed | undisclosed | undisclosed | $66M |
| EV/Revenue | ||||
| EV/EBITDA | ||||
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Symphony Communication Services Competitors
Symphony Communication Services competitors include listed companies like AvePoint, DPtech and CloudWalk, and private ones like Avathon, GupShup and Salt Security.
| Company | HQ | Status | Revenue | EBITDA | Valuation | Revenue Multiple |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | Publicly listed | $419M | $42M | $2.9B | 5.1x | |
| San Francisco, CA | Private | - | - | $1.4B | - | |
| San Francisco, CA | Private | $150M | - | $1.4B | - | |
| San Francisco, CA | Private | - | - | $1.4B | - | |
 China | Publicly listed | $182M | $25M | $1.4B | 4.9x | |
| China | Publicly listed | $75M | ($75M) | $1.5B | 19.1x |
Symphony Communication Services Public Comps
Symphony Communication Services is still privately-owned, but its public comps include DPtech, Secunet, CloudWalk, Radware, Red Violet, Eastcompeace Tech, Teamviewer, Bandwidth, Weaver Network and Progress Software.
| Last FY | EV/Revenue | EV/EBITDA | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | EBITDA | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | Last FY | LTM | 2027E | |
| $182M | $25M | 5.3x | 4.9x | 39.0x | - | |||
| $528M | $86M | 2.8x | 2.6x | 17.3x | 16.3x | |||
| $75M | ($75M) | 18.8x | 19.1x | (18.7x) | - | |||
| $302M | $20M | 3.6x | 3.4x | 56.1x | 23.2x | |||
| $90M | $24M | 13.2x | 11.7x | 50.0x | 31.7x | |||
| $197M | $26M | 4.8x | - | 36.4x | - | |||
| $860M | $310M | 2.5x | 2.5x | 7.0x | 5.9x | |||
| $754M | $39M | 2.7x | 2.3x | 51.2x | 17.3x | |||
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Common questions about Symphony Communication Services
| When was Symphony Communication Services founded? | Symphony Communication Services was founded in 2014. |
| Where is Symphony Communication Services headquartered? | Symphony Communication Services is headquartered in New York City, NY, United States. |
| Is Symphony Communication Services publicly listed? | No, Symphony Communication Services is a private, VC-backed company. |
| What is Symphony Communication Services' valuation? | Symphony Communication Services was last valued at $1.4B in its Series E in December 2020. |
| How much funding has Symphony Communication Services raised? | Symphony Communication Services has raised $511M across 6 funding rounds. |
| What was Symphony Communication Services' last funding round? | Symphony Communication Services' last funding round was a $50M Series E in December 2020. |
| Who are Symphony Communication Services' investors? | Symphony Communication Services' investors include Citigroup, BNY Mellon, MUFG Innovation Partners, MUFG, HSBC, Natixis, Standard Chartered, CLSA, Deutsche Bank, Jefferies and 17 others. |
| Which companies are comparable to Symphony Communication Services? | Companies comparable to Symphony Communication Services include AvePoint, Avathon, GupShup, Salt Security, DPtech and CloudWalk. |
| How many companies has Symphony Communication Services acquired? | Symphony Communication Services has acquired 4 companies, including Amenity Analytics, StreetLinx, Cloud9 Technologies and Perzo. |
| What was the largest acquisition by Symphony Communication Services? | The $66M acquisition of Perzo in August 2014 is the largest acquisition Symphony Communication Services has made to date. |
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