Peter Wohlleben, German forester and author of The Hidden Life of Trees, has described how trees communicate through what he calls the “woodwide web”, a network of threads of fungi wrapped around roots which forms a “mycorrhizal network.” This underground network allows trees to transfer water, nitrogen, carbon and other nutrients between one another so forests remain healthy, and is an apt analogy for the growth of Symphony since Brad Levy took over as chief executive three years ago.

Levy joined Symphony during lockdown in July 2020, when the firm was known as a messaging platform, and became chief executive in June 2021.

“I am genuinely surprised at how much we have got done in three years given the macro environment and the world setting on fire every six months,” he added. “We have a really strong team of operating leaders and hundreds of people who are committed to working hard despite the challenges.”

Four quadrant platform

He told Markets Media that the firm set a strategy of becoming a market infrastructure provider and he now describes Symphony as having a four quadrant platform  – messaging, voice, directory and analytics.

“We established a strategy that we are a tech for fin,” he added. “Two years ago we started really locking in on industry challenges such as  client onboarding, fixed income markets, T+1 settlement as solving problems creates P&L and opportunity.”

A strategic vision requires execution. Symphony has made acquisitions and Levy said the firm has raised the final legs of capital needed to get the company to profitability and positive cashflow this year.

“We are here to stay,” he added. “It’s just a matter of how big the  impact is that we make.”

In the first quadrant, the Federation messaging business connects to WhatsApp, WeChat, SMS, LINE & Voice from Symphony to enhance client engagement and help meet regulatory recordkeeping requirements.

Voice

In the second quadrant, Symphony acquired Cloud9 Technologies, the trader voice and electronic communication company in June 2021.

With this acquisition, Symphony said it would be able offer new services combining trader voice with natural language processing and automation to accelerate trade flows, improve transactional accuracy, and extend back office and remote worker use-cases.

“Voice is a third of our business and a really interesting technology space,” said Levy. “There is a lot of information in conversations and we can work with the industry to leverage that data for compliance, and business intelligence.”

Symphony launched Instant Voice in late 2023 that uses patented technology to instantly connect execution desks with operations, risk, and research teams, to accelerate communication, break down silos, and improve efficiency.

Symphony will combine its AI and domain expertise with @googlecloud’s transcription and generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) capabilities to offer built-for-purpose financial markets voice analytics. https://t.co/vh47vWmwX7 pic.twitter.com/Et81R9ciSf

— Symphony (@Symphony) November 28, 2023

Levy said the firm will be introducing more voice capabilities into its messaging stack. A new  generative AI-powered and AI noise-suppressed solution provides high-accuracy transcription and can extract detailed analysis with models trained in trading floor jargon.

“We are taking voice and constructing a bridge between our messaging and voice platform,” he added.

The third quadrant, directory, is less visible but critical for people to connect on Symphony and drive workflow efficiencies following the acquisition of counterparty mapping platform StreetLinx in 2021,

“By the end of this year we will have an enhanced directory through combining the directories in Cloud9 and StreetLinx,” Levy added. “We are starting to get traction from building out the enhanced profile directory.”

Finally, in 2022 Symphony acquired Amenity Analytics, a natural language processing data analytics solution to boost its fourth quadrant. Amenity specializes in extracting insights from a variety of content types including earnings call transcripts, news, social media, filings, and research, among other publicly available sources.

Interoperability

Levy continued that Symphony thinks a lot about interoperability and is developing partnerships with the giant technology companies such as Google, Amazon and Microsoft who provide cloud and artificial intelligence models.

VP of platforms and SRE Olivier Richaud writes about Symphony’s migration to @GoogleCloudTech and the positive impact the successful deployment of GC's managed database service Bigtable has had on our operational efficiency. https://t.co/lIeRY3NSxH

— Symphony (@Symphony) February 28, 2024

At the Symphony Innovate event in New York in April this year the company announced it will be interoperable with Microsoft Teams.

Symphony is also integrating with financial market infrastructures. For example, the firm is piloting an integration with the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation’s Central Trade Match (CTM), DTCC’s platform to allocate and centrally match transactions globally. The integration allows users to communicate with counterparties directly, reducing context switching and manual data entry to streamline post-trade matching and confirmation as settlement cycles accelerate.

Consultancy Coalition Greenwich said in its Top Market Structure Trends for 2024 that the financial  industry’s focus has transitioned from just electronifying the matching of buyers and sellers to a more holistic goal of automating workflows.

“The focus on post-trade workflow automation is not simply tactical compliance, it is also a recognition that operational automation can support profit growth,” said the report. “APIs, middleware and distributed ledger technology have all played a part in operational redesigns. Not only are these ways to reduce people costs, but also ways to better manage risk and improve front-office performance.”

Levy highlighted that the US has moved to a quicker T+1 settlement for securities, but there are 25 other big global securities, and they are all connected.

“You only need a few shocks for the system to seize up and risk a huge selling frenzy and we are trying to provide people with that risk flare as an alert,” he added. “We are that connectivity tissue in a network that is highly curated, tailored and optimised.”

Geographic expansion

When Levy joined Symphony it had offices in the global financial centres such as London, New York, Paris and Tokyo. Technology and product strategy teams have since shifted to the south of France, Vietnam, Stockholm, Tel Aviv and a new office in Belfast.

In May this year Symphony said it has chosen Belfast as the location for a multifunctional hub. In the same month Symphony said it is establishing a commercial office in Abu Dhabi Global Market and will then be expanding in the Middle East.

“Abu Dhabi is an important strategic angle for us globally, and we think it’s an important region,” said Levy. “We are then looking to grow in Mexico, Brazil, Australia and Canada.”