Boosting Saphyre ’ s standing in a cautious industry has been one of its key challenges , particularly when other companies in the space compound the issue by over-promising and underdelivering . “ And then , when you have a fintech startup saying , ‘ We can do all these things too ,’ people might look at our size and question it ,” says Stephen . “ However , we ’ re bringing a phenomenal user experience ,” Gabino adds , “ If we needed to hire armies of people to support a business , that would undermine how advanced our platform really is .” In some respects , market differentiation hasn ’ t been difficult for Saphyre at all : possessing a portfolio of 48 patents and a unique offering in the pre-trade market , Gabino states that , prior to the company ’ s formation , there was no competition at all . Therefore , Saphyre ’ s team has been able to instead focus on raising the digital transformation of pre-trade to a higher standard . “ When institutions in the finance space make investments , they invest in trading and post-trade because that ’ s where the money ’ s to be made . I ’ m not suggesting that pre-trade gets ignored , but you ’ d be surprised by the amount of Windows 95 and legacy infrastructure that still exists out there .”
“ We chose to take on this endeavor because the status quo wasn ’ t serving people ’ s best interests ”
— Stephen Roche , President , Saphyre
19 fintechmagazine . com