A month away from the debut of Symphony's instant messaging system, CEO David Gurle plays down talk that his company could be the one to topple "The Bloomberg." "I don't think so," Gurle (pronounced gehr-LAY), told CNBC. "You know, we are not building a Bloomberg terminal. We are building a communication platform." Symphony's platform is backed by $66 million from 14 blue chip financial firms, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citadel and BNY Mellon. Gurle said he is lucky in that his investors are also his clients, as their input helped shape the service. "We know what they want and how they use the products," he said. "So from that perspective it was very helpful. What they want us to do is to simplify the way they communicate internally and externally." Still, some speculate the firms are expecting Symphony to do more than simplify the way they communicate, and that they want the company to build a more private and less expensive alternative to the Bloomberg or Reuters services they use. For example, Bloomberg's service is rich with proprietary data and analytics. This justifies its hefty annual price tag of close to $20,000 per subscription. For most users though, the most popular Bloomberg function is its instant messaging system.
Symphony continues to attract attention ahead of its launch next month . The platform , which extended its user base with a soft launch today , is being billed by some as a challenger to Bloomberg . CEO , David banks , has reiterated that Symphony is building a web platform , not a Bloomberg terminal , stating that it aims to simplify the way firms communicate , offering a secure encrypted and compliant , communication platform . It will charge $ 300 a month for a professional subscription , half the enterprise - level fee .