Investment bank HSBC has joined a $22 million Series C funding round in financial markets operating system specialist OpenFin, bringing the firm’s total investment to date to $45 million.
OpenFin said it will use the latest round of funding to explore new products and expand its offering into Asian markets. OpenFin’s application-agnostic operating system created specifically for financial markets participants is now used by more than 1,500 banks and buy-side firms across almost 200,000 desktops.
HSBC already uses OpenFin’s operating system for its digital desktop strategy, including for client-facing technology and internal applications. The bank joins various major investors in OpenFin, such as Barclays, CME Group, DRW, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo.
Desktop container technology is an important component of our digital transformation strategy across the bank. OpenFin has demonstrated that it is a leader in this space and HSBC is looking forward to working together on shared application infrastructure for the financial industry.
Niall Cameron, head of corporate and institutional digital at HSBC
OpenFin launched its FDC3 initiative in 2017, which aims to establish universal connectivity and standards across the financial industry’s desktop applications. It solves operational issues associated with inter-system connectivity, where end-users at banks and hedge funds deploy a combination of in-house and vendor applications. The initiative received cross-industry support and was contributed to the Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS) in May last year.
“Global banks such as HSBC are at the core of the financial industry’s app ecosystem,” said OpenFin CEO, Mazy Dar. “Their dual role as an innovative developer of proprietary apps and as a major consumer of third-party apps makes them an important partner as we work to transform the financial industry’s app infrastructure.”