The Future Of Wall Street: Fintech 50 2021
JAMES ALBERT, 22 July 2021
Even before the Coronavirus pandemic closed bank branches and emptied Wall Street’s once-boisterous trading floors, the digitization of all things finance was well underway. Stock markets trade almost entirely electronically and many of Wall Street’s most valuable companies now provide data, technology and software to the big banks, private equity firms and hedge funds that execute the day’s big trades. Covid only accelerated the push for firms to digitize their businesses and handle an increasingly distributed workforce.
Behavox, founded by former Goldman Sachs stock analyst and hedge fund portfolio manager Erkin Adylov, has become the go-to solution for banks, hedge funds and PE firms looking to maintain control over their data as their workers trade and communicate digitally. Founded seven years ago by Kyrgyzstan-born Adylov, Behavox’s natural language processing algorithms and data lakes track and store email and voice communications for large banks and hedge funds, helping to protect against issues like market manipulation, insider trading and the stealing of intellectual property.
Business boomed for Behavox as workforces went remote during the pandemic, creating enormous challenges for risk and compliance departments. Adylov’s fast growing company signed up new customers ranging from quant fund Schonfeld Strategic Advisors to private equity firm Jordan Company. Investment bank Jefferies implemented Behavox’s software in the summer of 2020 as its workers operated remotely and Behavox is the software that Danske Bank is using to revamp its controls. Just before the pandemic, Behavox added $100 million in VC funding from the Softbank’s Vision fund, adding Masa Son’s firm to investors that include Citigroup and Index Ventures.
The firm is one of the honorees on the Fintech Zoom’ 2021 Fintech 50 List, our ranking of the most promising private financial technology companies. Across finance, listmakers are revolutionizing the way people spend, save and invest. On Wall Street, innovations are opening new markets, driving greater efficiency, and helping to rein once unmanageable operations.
