- OpenFin says it has secured a strategic investment from Standard Chartered, bringing the startup’s total fundraising to $50 million.
- The company is bringing an app-based operating system to Wall Street, aiming to mirror the experience of using a smartphone or Mac for workers at banks, hedge funds, and asset managers.
- The capital raised from SC Ventures, Standard Chartered’s venture capital and fintech investing arm, will go towards development, like rolling out a notification center for users
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
OpenFin, a startup that’s developed an operating system specifically catered to Wall Street firms, announced Wednesday it had secured a strategic investment from SC Ventures, the fintech investing and venture capital arm of Standard Chartered Bank.
The funding comes as OpenFin, which helps firms deploy software applications for their employees in a safe, seamless and efficient matter, looks to expand its offering. Traditionally, the fintech caters toward firm’s front-office employees, such as traders and portfolio managers.
However, OpenFin’s newest investor sees opportunities beyond just those in trading.
“With Standard Chartered, the focus on innovation across lots of areas has meant that they engaged very quickly with us, both in the front office and in corporate functions spanning all the way to human resources,” OpenFin cofounder and CEO Mazy Dar told Business Insider.
The investment terms of the deal and OpenFin’s current valuation were not disclosed, but the company has raised a total of $50 million in funding, including a $17 million Series C in 2019 that was led by Wells Fargo.
OpenFin currently has more than 1,500 clients across banks, hedge funds and asset managers.
Singapore-based SC Ventures has a $100 million portfolio of seven companies, according to their website, with an average investment between $1 million and $5 million. OpenFin began working with Standard Chartered as a client earlier this year, before the investment by SC Ventures.
The investment will help OpenFin develop an offering for the back offices that, though less visible than traders and portfolio managers, serve critical functions for banks, especially as the coronavirus pandemic has led to a massive surge in employees working from home.
The SC Ventures team saw opportunities for OpenFin to be “used much more broadly within the bank,” said OpenFin Europe CEO Adam Toms.
“That’s one of the things that was really eye opening for us at Standard Chartered Bank. They’re really focused on this kind of innovation that certainly includes improving the experience for front-office employees, but also more broadly includes improving employee experience across all areas of the bank,” said Dar.
OpenFin plans to use the investment to further develop a notification center for apps
Dar said the new capital will primarily go towards development, including plans to further roll out a new notification center tool that’s currently used by a tier-one bank and a major asset manager.
“What we’re now doing is giving OpenFin a visual interface for the first time,” Dar said.
OpenFin users will have access to app notifications — showing clickable price alerts that then take users to a trading app, for example — in one central place.
The investment also provides another boost for OpenFin in fast-growing, massive markets for financial services in Asia, Africa and the Middle East – key client bases for Standard Chartered.
These efforts come at a time when modern tech for app development within investment banking and asset management has lagged behind retail banking, said Dar.
“Our estimate, just from speaking with many of our customers, is that within professional financial services, something like 80% of the apps” are run on legacy systems and 20% are modern web-based, while the ratio in retail banking is the reverse, Dar said.
“It’s still relatively early in the cycle,” he added.
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