BLK BlackRock Inc

Symphony Communication Services LLC, an instant-messaging startup backed by Wall Street, is in early talks with potential investors to raise about $100 million in new funding.

The company has discussed investments with Singapore wealth funds Temasek Holdings and GIC, as well as U.S. private-equity firm General Atlantic, according to people familiar with the matter. Some existing investors are also expected to participate in the latest funding round.

An additional investment round could close as soon as early next year, the people said.

Symphony raised about $100 million a year ago from investors such as Alphabet Inc.'s Google unit. That 2015 round valued the startup at $650 million.

It is unclear how the latest investment round would affect that valuation, and no final agreement has been reached.

"We are well-funded for our operations and future growth," said Symphony spokeswoman Samantha Singh, who declined to comment on the funding round.

Symphony, which is backed by banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and money managers such as BlackRock Inc., has yet to gain widespread use at many of the companies that helped start Symphony in late 2014. The firm's launch came as low interest rates, sleepy markets and new regulations have crimped profits across the financial-services industry, forcing firms to slash expenses.

To succeed, Symphony needs to find a home on the crowded computer screens of traders at banks and their clients.

The company hit a milestone in June when BlackRock, the world's biggest asset manager, moved all of its internal messaging to the service and started encouraging its banks and brokers to communicate with them.

While Symphony executives have played down its portrayal as a rival to Bloomberg's popular messaging function, Wall Street backed the company in part because it took aim at one the features that binds their employees to the Bloomberg terminal.

Symphony is selling its messaging service as a platform through which users can access data, analytics, news and other sources of information.

In an effort to expand further, Symphony also recently agreed to join with Money.net, an upstart information company that offers Wall Street a cheaper alternative to Bloomberg LP's terminals, people familiar with the matter. The partnership with Money.net unites two startups that have emerged as Wall Street sought to loosen Bloomberg's grip on the trading floors of banks, hedge funds and other investors.

Bloomberg charges $22,000-$25,000 a year for each individual login, and its refusal to stray from an all-or-nothing pricing model has grated on many clients.

Symphony charges business customers $15 per user.

Money.net, which was founded by former Bloomberg executive Morgan Downey, charges clients around $1,500 a year to use its data service.

Dow Jones Newswires, a wire service of Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, is a provider of news on the Symphony platform and competes with Bloomberg.

Write to Justin Baer at justin.baer@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 05, 2016 15:35 ET (19:35 GMT)

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