- OpenFin, a startup that helps electronic-trading firms build their desktop applications, has raised $15 million in funding.
- Backers include JPMorgan, the high-speed trading firm DRW, and the venture capital firm Euclid Opportunities.
- The firm wants to become what iOS and Android are to the mobile application world.
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A little-known startup that has quietly amassed 100,000 Wall Street users just scored a big investment
OpenFin, a startup that helps electronic-trading firms build their desktop applications, is getting its moment in the spotlight.
Dealers work on the trading floor of BGC Partners in the Canary Wharf financial district in east London.
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You might have heard of the high-speed market-maker Citadel Securities or the interdealer broker TP ICAP. Then there's TruMid, the bond-trading platform backed by George Soros and Peter Thiel, and the Treasury-trading startup OpenDoor.
One little-known firm connects them all — and many more Wall Street trading firms — behind the scenes: OpenFin. Now the startup, which helps electronic-trading firms build their desktop applications, is getting its moment in the spotlight.
The firm has raised $15 million in a Series B fundraising round from investors including JPMorgan, the fintech backer Euclid Opportunities, and the high-speed trading firm DRW. Bain Capital Ventures, Pivot Investment Partners, and Nyca Partners have already invested in the firm, as have the likes of Cris Conde, former CEO of SunGard, and Tom Glocer, former CEO of Thomson Reuters.
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The vision, according to OpenFin CEO Mazy Dar, a former chief strategy officer at Creditex, is to become to Wall Street what iOS and Android are to the mobile application world.
"When you have the iOS layer, and Android, that is the layer that enables developers to know what they are building their app in," Dar said. That's what OpenFin aims to become.
The firm already has 35 investment banks and trading firms signed up, according to Dar, and it powers applications licensed on over 100,000 desktops. He said the firm has been increasing revenue 100% year-over-year for the past few years and is close to being cash flow positive. The $15 million investment will enable the firm to expand — Dar plans to double headcount from 25 in New York and London currently to 50 within a year.
The aim is to become "the industrywide operating layer," he said. Right now, OpenFin is typically delivered to a desktop together with an application that runs on it. The hope is that, in time, OpenFin will be on the desktop independent of any application, becoming a kind of finance application ecosystem of its own.
"OpenFin enabled us to reach hundreds of client desktops instantly with an operating layer already vetted by many major banks and financial institutions," said Tony Schiavo, chief technology officer at TruMid.
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There are three key pillars to OpenFin's strategy. The first is to have apps that can be downloaded and updated easily — the same way you would download apps on your phone — and then have them update regularly.
Then there's the layer of security, a key issue for any Wall Street institution. Finally, there is interoperability, or letting the apps talk to one another — the same way social media apps connect on your phone.
"We're in a world where apps are siloed and by and large do not talk to one another," Dar said. "The human sitting in front of the six monitors is the integration layer. With OpenFin, they are now able to talk to one another, share data and contacts."
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