SAPHYRE
Stephen and Gabino Roche return to describe Saphyre ’ s progress as it democratises the pre- and post-trade space through sophisticated yet simple tech
When Stephen and Gabino Roche ( President and CEO respectively ) at Saphyre spoke with us in 2020 , they made it clear that the company was on a mission to overcome risk-aversion in finance and introduce critical innovation to a historically inefficient system . Having realised that silos and poor user experiences were benefitting no one in the pre-trade space , the brothers decided that nothing less than a wholesale disruption of the status quo would satisfy their desire to democratise trading . Saphyre subsequently achieved this ambition with the development of its integrated onboarding platform , but the story didn ’ t end there .
In a fresh interview , the Roche brothers updated us on what has transpired in the interim , the importance of interoperability , and why customer acquisition will be their primary focus moving forward .
One thing that ’ s certainly changed has been the COVID-19 pandemic : from not knowing how the situation would resolve in late 2020 to the development of vaccines in Q1 of 2021 , Saphyre has weathered the storm and emerged stronger as a result . However , Gabino says , the journey wasn ’ t always an easy one . “ We were a little nervous in the beginning because meeting face-to-face with clients is an important thing when building a business . Saphyre is a technology company , so it wasn ' t hard for us to handle going remote , but we were afraid that would create a dip in our client engagement .” They needn ’ t have worried ; it didn ’ t . In fact , by utilising video conferencing software and saving travel time between engagements , Saphyre actually managed to create more opportunities than ever . Now , as a degree of normality is gradually restored to life and work in the US , Gabino states that lessons learned regarding remote working ’ s efficacy for the business will not be forgotten . The autumn of 2020 brought Saphyre one of its greatest accomplishments to date : partnership with both BlackRock and JP Morgan , who opted to utilise the company ’ s artificial intelligence ( AI ) technology to automate account opening for securities services . Stephen makes it clear that important collaborations have continued to be formed , most recently with investment bank BNY Mellon . “ Its asset servicing arm is now deploying the Saphyre solution on their platform and working with their counterparties . We ’ re also working on other partnerships and integrations that you ' ll be hearing about in the coming weeks and
“ Saphyre is a technology company , so it wasn ' t hard for us to handle going remote ”