Symphony Communication Services, a messaging start-up backed by Wall Street banks, said it had raised more than $100 million in a new round of funding from investors including Google, UBS Group and European venture capital firm Lakestar.
Symphony's chat service allows financial firms, corporate customers and individuals to put all of their digital communications on one centralised platform.
The Wall Street Journal, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported last week that the new round of funding would value Symphony at about $650 million.
Other investors that participated in the latest funding round include French investment banks Natixis SA, Societe Generale and a group of existing investors including Silicon Valley venture firm Merus Capital.
Goldman Sachs Group led a group of 14 banks including Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase & Co in making a $66 million investment in Symphony last October, when Symphony was set up.
Symphony said yesterday it would use the new capital to address demand and to speed up expansion of its global operations.
The Symphony service is a rival to financial market messaging services offered by Bloomberg and Thomson Reuters. It is available to businesses with more than 50 users for $15 per user per month. Smaller businesses and individuals can use the tool for free.
Symphony said last month it was working with News Corp's Dow Jones to offer news in its service and with McGraw Hill Financial to integrate data and analytics from its S&P Capital IQ product.
Google became Alphabet earlier this month.
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