The company-provided laptops snapped open just as the financial trading floors closed.
As the COVID-19 pandemic persists, traders have moved their banshee-like bids online, with the usual shouts for oil prices now replaced by the multiplication of internet browser tabs. The move has translated to a boom for voice trading platforms like Cloud9 Technologies, which said its business has grown 50 percent since March.
To handle demand, Cloud9 announced on Thursday it raised $17.5 million in Series B funding.
Founded in 2014, the NYC-based startup provides an encrypted, cloud-based platform that investors across the globe use to replace turrets, which are the bulky office phones that allow them to call key contacts at the push of a button and record the conversation. Cloud9 brings these same services online and, as investors argue over stock prices, the company’s machine-learning systems transcribe their financial jargon in real time.
Conversational insights are then gathered into a single analytics platform that traders can use to see how their colleagues’ deals are going. The company said it handles millions of voice trader communications per day from more than 5,000 institutional investors.
The fintech startup has also recently onboarded several global banks and investment management companies to its platform as it continues to grow its business.
Cloud9 isn’t the only voice trading platform experiencing a boom during the pandemic. In March, Reuters reported that competitor Speakerbus has also added hundreds of new customers, and that the United Kingdom company expected demand to only increase. The report noted that Cloud9 expected subscriptions for its software-as-a-service platform to triple in the coming quarter.
“The transition to a virtual, cloud-based trading floor is accelerating as the industry recognizes the importance of a more flexible and intelligent voice communications model,” Cloud9 founder and CEO Jerry Starr said in a statement.
The Series B round brought total investment in Cloud9 to $61.5 million. The company currently has one dev ops engineer position listed as open on its website. UBS led the round, with participation from existing investors like J.P. Morgan and Barclays.
