Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is in talks to invest in secure messaging platform Symphony.
The investment would value the company at around $650 million.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the funding round is expected to close this week.
The company was formed in October 2014 with a $66 million capital investment from major financial institutions including Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan.
It was initially founded with a stated focus on secure, compliant and end-to-end encrypted communications for financial services professionals.
Partnerships with McGraw Hill Financial, supplying S&P Capital IQ financial data, and Dow Jones, providing a news feed, are steps towards building a full finance platform comparable to Bloomberg.
Rob Bamforth of Quocirca, says that this Google‘s strategy in investing may go beyond the financial sector, however.
"[The move] perhaps highlights the value of secure communications and collaboration across the board, rather than just the financial sector.
"With organisations being more mobile, distributed and virtual, including having closer 3rd party relationships with suppliers (&customers), this value is only going to increase.
"Google’s past endeavours in social communications have been a bit patchy, but it does seem to have better focus on enterprise with ‘Google for Work’, so this could be a good fit.
"I think this may be more than a financial sector play, even though that is still a very important vertical."
