Financial markets software provider Genesis Global has announced that it has raised a $45 million Series B financing round led by Accel and Salesforce Ventures, alongside existing investors Citi, Illuminate Financial and Tribeca Early Stage Partners.

Genesis, which provides a native low-code software application platform (LCAP) for financial markets, will use the investment to grow sales, marketing and engineering; for international expansion; and to further develop the platform’s low-code / no-code tooling and functionality.

One of Genesis’ recent product launches was FX Prime, a trade capture application developed for FX and rates trading desks with Prime Broker integration.

The company said that today, financial institutions face increasing competitive pressure to develop new value-add services and automate highly regulated workflows on legacy systems with minimum disruption to core activities. This has only been made more difficult by the current pandemic as financial institutions adjust to the realities of remote working. For all but the largest internal IT teams, demand often far outstrips their ability to deliver. As a result, many financial institutions risk falling behind and losing market share to competitors.

Genesis said that it is helping firms build new software more than 5x faster than if they had started from scratch, with less code and at a lower cost. Its resilient, secure and scalable platform addresses regulatory and competitive requirements such as real-time reporting and low-latency. By providing a modular and flexible purpose-built framework, the Genesis platform enables its customers to simultaneously build new applications while improving or isolating functionality of existing legacy systems. They can finally break away from the old paradigm of ‘build versus buy’, in favour of ‘build and buy’.

While Gartner predicts that by 2024, low-code application development will be responsible for more than 65% of application development activity, until Genesis, no other LCAP had been built specifically for the complexities of the financial markets. Its ability to address complex use cases beyond traditional BPM and RPA, from direct automation of client servicing portals to real-time risk management and high-frequency trading, has quickly attracted an impressive, global list of customers, including B3, Citi, ING, London Clearing House, and XP Investments. With origins in financial markets, Genesis has a strong foundation for expansion into other regulated industries and large enterprises.

Founded by Stephen Murphy and James Harrison, who bring extensive technology and systems experience from top tier financial institutions, the Genesis team is based across offices in the UK, US and Brazil. The investment will be used to grow the sales, marketing and engineering teams; expand into international markets including Asia-Pacific; and further build out the Genesis platform’s low-code / no-code tooling and functionality.

Stephen Murphy, CEO and co-founder of Genesis, said:

“Over the past few years, we’ve seen the low-code revolution sweep multiple industries but in financial markets, legacy vendors and generalist low-code providers still dominate. Many firms are missing out on the benefits of low-code programming – agility, value and flexibility – at a time in which they’ve never needed it more. We knew there had to be a better way to build software in financial markets and enterprises more broadly. Our low-code application platform is a game changer, democratising product design and helping firms deliver digital innovation quicker and with less code. We are excited to have Accel on board who has a long track record in supporting category-leading companies in low-code and enterprise automation.”

Andrei Brasoveanu, Partner at Accel, who joins Genesis’ board, said:

“Low-code promises business users the autonomy to make their own technology usage and purchase decisions while enabling them to actually build their own applications without having to rely on IT. By bringing one of the most transformative innovations in software development to financial services, Steve and the Genesis team are taking on a huge market of legacy vendors – and winning too – while delivering on the promise of low-code. The confidence they’ve gained from serving such large institutions is proof that there’s a real and urgent need for a purpose-built low-code solution for financial markets. We’re excited to partner with Genesis and support them in delivering this across the world.”

Genesis terms itself as the first and only low-code application platform built for financial markets. With Genesis, firms can build software significantly faster than if they had started from scratch, with less code and at a lower cost, while simultaneously catering for a range of simple and complex financial use cases. Trusted by Citi, B3, ING and London Clearing House, Genesis is a resilient, secure and scalable modular platform which addresses regulatory and competitive requirements such as low-latency, making it ideal for regulated industries and large enterprises. Breaking away from the old paradigm of ‘build or buy’, Genesis allows firms to build new applications while improving or isolating functionality of existing legacy systems. Genesis has offices in London (HQ), New York, and São Paulo.