A syndicate of 14 financial services providers have partnered to set up a new company that will then acquire US-based trader messaging service Perzo.
BofA Merrill Lynch, BNY Mellon, BlackRock, Citadel, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, JPMorgan, Maverick, Morgan Stanley, Nomura and Wells Fargo have invested $66m to create Symphony Communication Services and buy Perzo.
Perzo had received angel backing from Tom Glocer, formerly the CEO of Thomson Reuters, which is a peer to Perzo, and venture capital firm Merus Capital.
David Gurle, founder of Perzo in 2012, has been appointed CEO of Symphony, which is made up of the acquired Perzo and Goldman Sachs’s proprietary enterprise collaboration platform.
The core source code of the platform has been contributed to a foundation that from next year will allow certain components to be freely used, changed and shared by anyone via the use of an open-source licensing model.
Gurle said: “With the launch of Symphony, we are positioned to allow the industry to meet all of its regulatory obligations while constructing a platform for the exchange of information which is critical to the success of their business.”
Darren Cohen, global co-head of principal strategic investments at Goldman Sachs, added: “Symphony responds to a pressing need across the industry for better methods of communication and collaboration.”