Goldman-Led Consortium Unveils Symphony Communication Services

The $66 million investment will offer a secure communications and workflow tool, which is a combination of the Perzo's platform and a platform that was in development at Goldman Sachs, according to a Reuters report.

A press release states that the solution will use an open-source platform and open architecture "that will allow for both integration of its components to third-party applications and interoperability with other networks." The collaborative software is served via a cloud-based, SaaS-subscription model.

In a blog post on Symphony's website, David Gurle, who founded Perzo and who will head Symphony, wrote: "The Symphony platform is intended to be used by some of the most time-conscious firms on the planet who are regularly corresponding high-value information ─ where a delay of a few seconds can have significant cost implications. Our backing by these firms demonstrates our continued commitment to providing innovative, secure messaging and collaboration tools that improve the workflow and productivity of our users."

Every Symphony message will be encrypted locally at the client, using a key shared only by the members of the conversation, Gurle writes. Symphony cannot access an end-user's information as the data is encrypted using keys only known to the client. Symphony will rely on a layered security model, guaranteed data deletion and an array of other security features.

In addition to Goldman, the consortium includes a who's who of Wall Street firms: Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNY Mellon, BlackRock, Citadel, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Jefferies, JPMorgan, Maverick, Morgan Stanley, Nomura and Wells Fargo. Symphony expects "many of these firms to be early adopters of the platform," according to the release.

The new company says that in 2015 "the foundation will allow certain key components of the platform's software to be freely used, changed and shared by anyone via the use of an open-source licensing model."