UBS, Switzerland's biggest bank, is joining other financial market heavyweights in their support for communication platform Symphony. The startup is targeting the dominating position of Bloomberg.
The list of companies invested in Symphony makes illustrious reading: Apart from UBS, Merrill Lynch, Blackrock, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley all are helping the communications firm to establish itself in the financial market.
Apart from UBS, French investment banks Société Générale and Natixis also added their weight, and last but not least the Internet giant Google, the first investor from outside the financial market community.
More Competition
The new backers together injected $100 million in Symphony, increasing the investments raised to $165 million. The company is valued at about $650 million.
Symphony has the potential to inject new life into the communications market, said Chris Murphy, co-head of FX, Rates and Credit at UBS in a statement.
Question of Trust
The investment in Symphony is a clear sign that the financial market wants to tackle the dependence on one player – Bloomberg, as finews.ch reported. The move goes back to events in 2013, when it became known that reporters at Bloomberg had had some access to terminals of clients. Matthew Winkler, the head of Bloomberg News, was forced to apologize.
