In a Wells Fargo & Co.-led round, financial services software startup firm OpenFin notched $17 million in funding. Barclays also participated in the round, as did existing investors such as Bain Capital Ventures, Pivot Investment Partners and JPMorgan Chase & Co., Reuters reported.
The company reportedly plans to use the funds toward product development and growing its sales efforts. It has created an operating system that helps create and upgrade software applications for financial institutions — much like the way consumer apps get updated on phones. The process can help reduce the money and time for modernization of software for back- and front- office functions like risk management or trading. It could otherwise take a financial institution from half a year to 18 months to update or deploy a program.
OpenFin Chief Executive and Co-Founder Mazy Dar said, according to the outlet, “Banks know that they need to significantly reduce their cost of doing business and they need to increase productivity.” As it stands, almost 200,000 desktops at over 1,500 banks as well as buy-side firms tap into the company’s operating system. The company is headquartered in London and New York.
In other recent funding news in the financial technology space, Barclays invested $12.9 million in Bink per reports in February. The firm enables customers to store as well as view their loyalty cards on a phone and connects payment cards for rewards and points. Ruchir Rodrigues, the head of digital and open banking at Barclays, said at the time per reports that the firm “Bink has created a practical and innovative solution to an everyday problem and we're excited to support them in the next stage of their growth.”
Bink wrote in a tweet at the time, “Great start to 2019! Closure of £10M funding round led by Barclays. Barclays and Bink will work in collaboration to deliver ground-breaking experience for customers."
